Is He My Joke, My Knight, or My Brother
by lizzyleefree
Summary: Princess Bubblegum discovers hidden parts about Finn's past and her own. How much choice does she have in who she loves? What does Finn really mean to her?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Storm**

This is the story of Finn the Human, and I probably know more about it than he does. He thinks that the first time he ever came to my castle was when he rescued me from that nasty Ice King when he was only 12 years old. I know different, though. I'll never forget the real time Finn the Human first came to my castle.

I had just barely turned 6 years old.

Mama was home from a very long foreign policy trip in Aaa and I wanted to spend every second I could with her. It was raining like nuts outside, so all the candy people were on lock down; candy people can't go out in the rain or else they dissolve! It's not a pretty sight and it's a butt to clean them up and mold them back together again! Mama and I were doing all the sleepover junk I loved. We did sugar facials, painted our nails, told ghost stories, and she even let me do some of my first experiments in her lab! It was one of my favorite memories with her, and would have just been an uneventful night if it wasn't for the loud banging on the castle doors that started when I was nearly asleep in Mama's arms.

She shot up from the bed and yelled, "Guards, who is that at this hour? Are they in danger?"

I heard Peppermint Butler shout back, "A very large woman, your majesty, with her young."

"Well, that can't be threatening," she muttered to herself. Then she turned to me, "Stay here, my little Bonnibelle. I'll go see what they need."

I nodded without a word and watched her flee from our safe, warm, dark fort we'd made on my bed towards the noise and confusion.

"Let them in!" she said, "It's freezing out there!"

I heard the wind and rain rush in the door as Peppermint Butler opened and slammed it as soon as the woman had gotten in. I only knew she was in because she was wildly screaming and crying at the same time. There was so much fear and sadness in her voice that it made my heart hurt. Even though Mama told me to stay, I crept out to the head of the stairs. I wanted to be just like Mama and help this woman, too.

The woman was drenched to the bone and had little cat ears, with a mass of sopping blond hair down her back. She must have been twice the size of mama, but the little bundle in her arms was no bigger than my candy bear. It kind of wiggled around a little and I think it was screaming, too, but the feeble sounds were drowned out by those of his mother. I locked eyes on that little bundle; I'd never seen a baby, not in person.

The woman talked in a thick, accent, and was very panicked, so I could only understand isolated phrases from her, "Please….you must take…must take FINN. His father dead and….everyone dead…hunting us…must be protected. I cannot protect FINN. They will kill me, too."

"Slow down, please, we will help you." Mama said, embracing her, "Your baby will dissolve being this wet, let our butler dry him and put him in new clothes."

"Diss-ol-vee?" stammered the woman slowly.

"Well, from the looks of you, I guess you'd just catch cold."

The woman nodded and held the bundle out to Peppermint Butler, looking away from it. It was hard to tell with the rain, but I think she had tears in her eyes.

The large woman and Mama continued to talk about who was trying to kill them, but all I could do was watch that little peppermint man with that tiny bundle. He looked up and saw me, then winked. I knew he wouldn't tell Mama I was eavesdropping. "Since you're up, Princess, help me come put this baby in some of your old clothes."

I nodded, taking my new assignment very seriously.

Up in my room, Peppermint Butler laid a towel on the floor and unwrapped the soaked blanket. Inside was this wriggling, shivering, pink little boy with nothing but a diaper and white bear hat on. I looked in amazement at his soft pink cheeks and those pudgy little fingers. Before I knew it those little fingers clutched one of my own tightly, and his little blue eyes gazed at mine.

Peppermint Butler took off his cute little hat and a mass of wet, shiny blond hair fell around his face. I wanted to feel it- to brush it out of his eyes- but I was startled by Peppermint Butler's loud gasp.

"What's wrong?" I exclaimed.

"Princess," he said slowly backing away, "this boy is human!"

I really did not understand the significance of what he was saying. "So what? We still hafta help him! He's only a little baby. Besides, humans were all over the place before the Great Mushroom War, right?"

He wasn't listening to me, but was pacing back and forth madly, muttering, "A completely un-mutated human. I thought they were all killed!"

"You can't kill him!" I grabbed the little baby in the towel and hugged him tight. He cooed in my ear and his grubby little hands clutched locks of my hair.

"No no no, Princess, of course we won't do that. I just want you to understand that helping him would be very dangerous, for our entire kingdom. That woman downstairs wants us to _keep him,_ but we simply can't make that sacrifice for our people. There are some very dangerous creatures out there that have it as their personal mission to kill all humans. They don't want them to start another Mushroom War. We may have to just give them food and provisions and send them on their way."

"NO!" I screamed so loud that the large woman's and Mama's talking ceased for a few seconds downstairs. "If you send them away, then they will just get killed later! This is Finn, and he will never start any wars! We will raise him here with the candy people, and I will be his mama if I have to! When he grows up, he will be righteous, and brave, and kind! He will be a hero to the entire kingdom!"

Peppermint Butler sighed and said, "Alright, just give him here and we'll get him a new diaper."

I held Finn away from him, "You promise you won't give him away?"

"Yes, Princess, I give you my word."

I liked Peppermint Butler because he always talked to me like I was an adult, but his attitude just wasn't making any sense to me. I cautiously handed Finn to him and watched him take off the diaper so I would know how to do it, too. I got all weirded out and my face kind of crinkled. He looked and smelled funky under that diaper.

When that kid was finally in a new diaper, Peppermint Butler carefully handed him back to me and chuckled, "You're just like your mother, always trying to help people, whether they're made of candy or not."

"Yes, I suppose she is," said Mama's voice. She stood in the door way smiling at me.

"Mama, we can't get rid of him, we can't!"

"I know, sweetie, we're going to raise him, ok?"

"Holy cabbage, really?"

"Watch your language, young lady! Cabbage is disgusting."

I giggled, "Sorry, Mama. Hey, where's Finn's mama?"

My mom looked away, towards the stairs, "She's gone, Bonnibelle."

"What? She didn't want to even say goodbye?" my eyes filled with tear as I looked at little Finn, "Didn't she love him?"

Mama walked over and put her arm around me while gazing at Finn, "Yes, I think she loved him very much, but she had to leave. It was her best chance for both of them to survive. It was very hard for her to leave, Sweetie."

"Why were they in danger, Mama?"

She was quiet for a while before she said, "I'll explain that to you when you're older. For now, just spend some quality time with Finn. He seems to really like you!"

I hugged Finn tight, "Ok, Mama. Was his Mama wearing a hat, too? Why did they both have hats?"

"To hide the fact that they were human. Please, Bonnibelle, no more questions tonight."

I nodded. Finn farted. Then he giggled.

Once his hair was all dry I laid him down next to me and ran my fingers through it until I fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Baby Finn**

For seven months of my childhood I was with Finn all the time. Mama tried to stay and do most of the caretaking, but she became more and more involved with the foreign policy meetings in Aaa and I got the impression it had to do with the same creatures who wanted to kill Finn's kind. So, I guess she took care of him harder than anyone in this indirect way. She felt bad I had taken on so much responsibility, and wanted the servants to most of the mothery stuff, but I was really protective over Finn. Since I was a kid, I could go off and play or go to my lessons, but I'd still want him where I could see him most of the time, even if the servants were looking after him. I didn't want Peppermint Butler to change his mind about keeping Finn and making it look like an accident.

I was there for his first steps, when he wobbled bravely over to me with a goofy, gap-toothed grin. His first word was "Buns!" I'm not sure why that was his first word, but he was a quirky little baby. His first time trying candy was way funny because he loved it so much I had to teach him not to eat the people!

I read all my books to him, even though he hardly ever paid attention. He always just wanted to play with that little candy cane sword Mama gave him.

The only thing I didn't do much of was change his diaper. The good thing about being royalty is that I could get the servants to do that. Stinky baby.

Seven months is so long to a kid, and even longer to a baby. Finn got bigger every day, and I felt like there was never a time when he was not in my life, or that he would be out of it. That would all change the night that _they_ came.

There were only three of them. The Goat-pigs. I later learned they were followers of the Lich, who had deceived them into believing that humans were the reason for all the worlds' misery and that killing them would make the world safe forever. They couldn't see what they had become- souless shells of beings that were not even bothered by killing an entire race; they became what they thought they were killing. Even though the Lich was imprisoned by Billy, these goons still believed what he taught them. It wasn't enough for that demon, that the only humans left were scattered, struggling with strange mutations, and barely surviving. He wanted them all gone.

I was dreaming of my mama when a banging vibration shook me awake from my cotton candy bed. I bolted from bed when I heard Finn's crying. I scooped him up in that fluffy blue onsie and huddled with him under my bed. The banging continued, and I winced every time as Finn grew more and more frightened.

I heard our marshmellow soldiers run at them with their spears. They're really the only soldiers we have; they can absorb a lot of impact and they're about the only type of candy here that doesn't explode when they're scared (really, that's not a beneficial mutation).

All I could hear was craziness! The screams of the candy people I loved, the animal cries of those freaky Goat-Pigs, parents below the castle running into their houses for cover, explosions…it was too much. How did they even know he was there? Did they capture Finns mom and torture the information out of her?

I heard Billy's gruff, powerful voice as he stormed in the castle, and before long the cries of the Goat-pigs sounded more terrified than any of the candy peoples'. Soon it was quiet.

"Two are dead." Billy announced. "Were there anymore?"

"Yes, one more." I heard the voice of a marshmellow soldier say nervously.

"Block the exits, search the entire castle! I need to go check on the princess!" We had kept Finn a secret even from Billy. It would have been smarter if we told him. He could have been ready for an attack like this, ready to protect us all. I could protect no one- I was only a 6-year-old little pink girl. I felt so powerless.

Billy's steps grew closer up the stairs, and I crawled out from under the bed with Finn, ready to run into his arms. Just before he got in there was a loud thud and the door opened. I breathed hard and squeezed my tiny brother as I realized what danger we were in.

Billy lay unconscious on the floor. A Goat-Pig towered over Finn and I. All I could see was the silhouette of his curved horns, his glistening snout, his fangs, and the glow of his green eyes.

"Please," I begged, forcing myself to look him straight in the eye, "don't hurt us."

"Give the evil human, girl of pink sugar." He grunted out in a slow, unnatural sounding voice.

"But he is mine. Can't you take me instead?" I knew this wouldn't work, but I was desperate.

"No. Only evil human child."

"He's not evil. YOU ARE!" I shouted.

I felt a sting across the side of my head as his hoof clobbed into the side of it. My vision went black a few seconds and then all I could see was my pink carpet and a few drops of my blood on it.

"FINN?" I shouted, looking around until the sight of my broken bedroom window froze me.

On a shard of glass, a small piece of fluffy, baby blue fabric clung, quivering gently in the breeze. That was it, all that was left of my Finn and the battle that had just turned my entire kingdom upside down.

By this time Billy had come to. He checked if I was ok and then jumped out the window to catch up with that evil creature and slay it. I know now that I was just in shock, but I wondered for years why I couldn't just manage to tell Billy before he left about Finn. I wondered, what if he killed the Goat-pig, and accidentally killed Finn, too? That is, if the monster had not done it already, the moment he jumped out of my window.

I have never cried more in my life than at that moment. Mama was there the next morning to mourn with me, but for that night, I was alone. And Finn was, too.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Noodler**

For a month I thought that Finn was dead. The candy staff had to force me to eat and I never wanted to come out of my room. I felt like everything was my fault. When I finally came to one of my school lessons again I was reading about all the mythical creatures of Ooo in one of my textbooks. I was supposed to be practicing my whistling, but the staff was just glad I was out of my room, so they didn't push it.

I was just barely skimming the words on the page when a creature called the Noodler caught my eye. Legend said that the Noodler lived in the lake of tears and, to someone who was worthy of having their suffering removed, noodled in one ear and out the other, erasing their most painful memory.

I packed up my things that same day to set out to find the Noodler. I was so freaked out. I never went on adventures or even went out by myself. I told myself I was doing my kingdom a favor because I would never be a good ruler to the Candy Kingdom with such sadness in my heart. Now I think it's probably just because I was too scared to deal with it on my own.

I remember one thing from that journey- meeting Marceline for the first time. I was jumping at every little frog and gnome that I came across and my back pack got heavy pretty fast. Little girls don't really get the concept of "only packing the essentials," so I was lugging the textbook I read about the Noodler in, a bunch of snacks and sodas, a brush, and about 5 outfits even though it was only a day's journey. I plopped my pack on the ground and rested my eyes in the grass.

I felt a little tap on my shoulder and opened my eyes to see a horrible demon hissing inches from my face! Unhinged jaws with fangs at my throat, red eyes, pale blue skin, a massive nest of black hair around its face, and claws pinning my shoulders down…I thrashed and screeched and cried until it let me up and then I heard laughing.

I ran into a tiny cave next to us and was just wracked in sobs. I sat there in the darnkness hugging my knees, and chewing on my own hair (that was a nervous habit when I was a kid; it caused bad split ends, but it was delicious since my hair is made of gum!).

A soft, gentle lady's voice spoke to me from outside the cave, "Hey, kid, come on. I was just pranking you. Please come out."

"No!" I shouted, "It was stupid of me to leave the castle without telling anyone. Now some monster is going to kill me in the woods and I'll never get to the Noodler."

"Wait the castle? What are you, a princess?" she had a lot of attitude in her voice.

She waited for me to catch my breath- I was crying so hard that I started hiccupping bubbles that were floating around me in the cave. Finally I said, "Yes, I am Princess Bonnibelle Bubblegum."

"Well then!" I could almost hear her rolling her eyes, "What does a little sheltered princess like you want to do with the Noodler? Do you want to remove the memory of one of your servants refusing to kiss your butt when you rolled out of bed?"

My fear was replaced with annoyance. No one had ever spoken to me so disrespectfully. "Eww, I would never make them do that! And you're a mean lady!"

"Wow, I scare you into a cave and you say I'm mean because of _that_ little dig? Your perspective is a little screwed up, princess."

"How can you be the demon? Your voice is so pretty. You are lying."

"I'm not. Look, Bonnibelle, is it? I'm a lot of things, but I'm no liar and I'm not really that mean. I just forget how sensitive mortals are. Please come out? I feel really sucky for scaring you so well."

"Why do you care if I come out?"

"Because I do, that's all. If you come out, I promise to never scare you ever again, and I'll even fly you to the Noodler."

I slowly came out of the cave and looked up to a pasty, lanky teenager above me. She wasn't standing, though, she was floating. I couldn't decide if I thought she was pretty or not. That mass of black hair fell down to her butt and looked really soft. Her clothes were all torn and junk, like she was some kind of rocker hobo. When I finally looked into her scarlet eyes she flashed me a grin. Her little fangs poked out and she awkwardly tucked a lock of hair behind her pointy ear- I could just barely see a little red bite mark on her neck.

"What is your name?" I asked timidly, but with full eye contact.

"Marceline."

"I would like it very much if you would take me to the Noodler, Marceline."

"Ok, I will. I don't suppose you'll tell me why?"

"Nuh-uh, vampire lady."

She raised her eyebrows, "How did a little princess like you know a vampire when you spotted one?"

"I read a lot." I blushed and for a split second I thought I saw her lick her lips.

"Ahh, so you're a bookworm. Hold on, let me just curb my _appetite_ before we go…" she purposefully passed me extra close to my neck and I flinched, but then I saw her pluck a giant lady bug about the size of Peppermint Butler from a boulder and she sucked the red color right out of it! I gasped, but when she put it down it walked away, seeming completely unfazed, even though it was white. I gasped again and giggled a little. I think that was the first time I'd laughed since that horrible night.

Marceline smiled, "You like that? You should come over to my place sometime and watch me eat again!" I smiled up at her and just nodded. "You ready to go, Bonnibelle?" I nodded again.

I let out a faint scream as she scooped me up and we shot through the air. The breeze was a little cold, and I clung close to her. She smelled good- a little earthy and musty, but with a faint, feminine sweetness. It's hard to explain, but I've always recognized Marceline's smell ever since then. Flying was so exhilarating. I'd done it once before on a rainicorn my aunt was friends with. We flew over the Fire kindom, the Ice kingdom, and finally we reached the lake of tears.

It was sad just being there. Instead of the rush of water I could hear wails of pain like soft whispers in my ear. I was too scared to even move. I turned to Marceline, "What do I do now?" It's amazing how quickly I trusted of her considering my first impression of her.

"Just ask the lake if you are worthy to see the Noodler." She shrugged. Like that was such an easy thing to do.

I nodded, but before I stepped up to the bank I reached up to Marceline for her to hold my hand. She looked a little uncomfortable, but she reached down slowly and clasped it tight.

"Ummm, Mr. or Ms. Lake, may I request a session with your Noodler?" I said in a shaky voice.

An echoed, androgynous voice entered my head, "Once the Noodler enters in, there's no more remembering your Finn. The good times never reimbursed, and the process very rarely reversed. Are you sure you want this, my dear? All to banish pain and fear?"

"Yes, I want it! He's dead and it's all my fault! What's the point in loving a dead person when my kingdom needs me?"

"You have suffered much, and are worthy to be cleaned. Let me ask you one more time, are you sure you want this?"

"Yes, just noodle me!" I snapped.

That's where my whole memory gets a little fuzzy. There was this nasty squishy feeling in my ear, and then in my head, worming its way through my brain. One thing I remember was the lakes voice whispering to me, in this cruel, mocking tone, _"He's not dead!"_

I began to fight after that. If he was alive that changed everything! I could tell the castle staff and they could resume the search. He needed me to remember! I wanted to remember the happy times so badly now- they were worth all the pain of losing him. Who had been taking care of him? Was he safe? The process was already in motion, though, and would not be stopped. I decided if I was not strong enough to stop it, I would just cling to one memory of him- the night I first met him.

I woke up in my room with a throbbing headache. I had horrible morning breath (like old, chewed gum). Images from all the weird dreams clouded my thoughts. My sleep over with Mama during a storm. A large woman. A tiny baby in my arms. A mass of shiny blond hair. His giggles as I tickled his belly. How did I dream of a baby so vividly if I'd never seen one? Or was it a dream? It seemed so real, but it didn't make any sense why I didn't remember it better. I didn't know the baby's name or who they were or where they went after visiting the castle. I didn't know why I felt a slight pang of longing in my chest when I thought of it. I squinted my eyes and shook my head. Thinking of it was only making my headache worse.

Suddenly Mama burst in the door and flung her arms around me. "Oh, Bonnibelle, you're awake!"

I laughed and hugged her back, "Mama? I was just taking a little nap! I think I may be getting a cold."

She leaned back to look at me very seriously, "Bonnibelle, you left home for 2 days without telling anyone. We all thought something horrible had happened to you. When I finally saw you again, you were left unconscious on our doorstep. You slept for 3 days."

I didn't understand her, "What are you talking about, Mama? I don't remember that. I guess you've been having weird dreams just like me!"

She looked like she was deciding on what to say and then her mood suddenly changed and she forced a laugh, "You must be right, Bonnibelle! I'll have to ask those cooks what they put in the tarts!"

I grinned. I kind of bought her performance, but I still felt weird- like I just couldn't be sure about what was real and what wasn't.

"Sweetie, just rest a little more. I'm going to go get some food and books for you."

"Ok, Mama."

It was weird for her not to just ask a servant to get those things. She must have had to regain her composure after lying. Mama was a terrible liar. As she walked out the door a folded note fell from her dress bustles. I knew she didn't mean for it to fall for me. Being such a bad liar she would have flinched awkwardly as it dropped instead of walking smoothly out of the room. I ran (more like stumbled) over and opened the note, thinking maybe it would make sense of everything.

"Hey Candy peeps,

Bonnibelle went to the Noodler. She will be ok, just give her a week to recover. She wanted to forget about someone who died, so try not to bring him up because it will overwhelm her brain juices.

Signed, Marceline the Vampire Queen

p.s. let me know if you ever want an awesome band to play at your fancy banquets or whatever. I'm pretty wicked on the bass."

Suddenly I remembered flying through the air with Marceline. She took me somewhere. I was all alone in the wilderness, so I must have run away like Mama said. Unless that was all a dream, too, but then there wouldn't be this note from Marceline.

After a few days when I wasn't constantly being smothered by my mom and the candy staff, and when I could actually walk steadily, I went into my lesson room to find information about the Noodler, but the place he should have been in the encyclopedia of Ooo's creatures was torn out. Oh well. I'd gathered from Marceline's note that it was to help people forget stuff, and it obviously worked because I didn't remember anyone who died.

After a while I connected that I really didn't remember much of anything after that sleep over with Mama when she let me do experiments in my lab. My brain had two renditions of that night; Mama fell asleep with me peacefully in the fort we made, or that she rushed out when the large woman banged on the door from the storm and ended up leaving a baby with us.

I went through spurts of investigating the lost memories of the past eight months of my life, but nobody would tell me anything. I never really looked any more by the time I'd turned 7. That dream of the baby seemed an eternity old and I was always busy with my new diplomatic training and rainicorn riding lessons. One night, though, I got up to go pee and heard the faint voices of Marshmellow soldiers in the barracks under the castle. I took the grate off the vent and wriggled in to listen. I didn't understand much of what they were talking about, but I had a little snail shell recording device around my neck that I'd made in the lab as my first invention a few days ago.

"So he's alive after all!" said a thick, manly marshmellow voice.

"Yes, general, he was taken in by animals in the woods. He seems to be developing very nicely."

"Well even if that's true, don't you think he'll need more protection than that?"

"No, he's in a discreet, rural location. It was a little conspicuous having him live in the castle, actually. He might be even safer there. Also, the few of the Lich's followers that are left are imprisoned all the way in Aaa thanks to the Candy Queen and the delegates from other kingdoms."

"Well, you are right about that."

"In addition, the animal who has taken on the role of his older brother is magical. I seriously doubt he will be lacking for protection."

"Very well. Tell the parents of the family the significance of raising a family, if they don't already know. We'll just check in on him every now and then. Is he the only human left, or is there a female out there?"

"I don't know, but if the humans want to recover from the brink of extinction, they need him. Kinda weird to imagine that chubby little thing saving his species."

After that they began to close the meeting and I rushed back to my room before anyone noticed. I listened to the recording over and over to piece together what I just heard.

The baby was not only a real memory, but he was also alive and safe. I heaved a sigh of relief and never really gave the issue much more thought. I would have set out to find Finn if I remembered how much love I had for him, but all I remembered at that time was little snippets of that first night he came to the castle. I didn't even remember his name.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: My Friend Finn**

Most of my childhood was happy and carefree. My first boyfriend was when I was 15. It was nice to get that kind of attention from a guy. He courted me and held my hand. We only kissed once. I don't really think I was ready to get so serious, and he wanted to take things too fast, so we broke it off. I had a lot of potential suitors, but it took a lot for me to like a guy.

I did develop a big crush on Marceline for a while when I was 16. I ran into her in the woods scaring away Why Wolves from the house people in the form of a giant demon. She seemed embarrassed that I'd actually caught her doing a good deed. She was also pretty surprised that I remembered her. Even though it had been 10 years since I saw her, she only looked 2 years older than when I met her. She wasn't quite as gangly and her face had elongated, giving her an elegant look despite the rough edges.

We hung out a lot for a few months, or at least as much as I was able to with my royal obligations. As Queen of the Vampires or whatever, she sure didn't seem to have any responsibilities. I guess Vampires are kind of self governing.

I went over to her house and she'd feed me red foods and tell me all about her adventures over the past 1000 years. She seemed to really like having someone to talk to. She never admitted it, but I figured it must be lonely to age as slowly as she did and go on all her adventures alone. I learned all about her issues with her dad, how much she missed her mom, how she killed the vampire king (he totally deserved it), and all the jerks she'd dated. I think hanging out with me brought out a softer side of her. I'd never saw her talk like that to anyone else. I thought about her constantly, but I wouldn't admit I had feelings for her at the time. After all, the public looks at who a princess is with. Most of the citizens would probably think a Vampire would not make a good future ruler to the Candy Kingdom. Even more than that, I was expected way more than anyone else to marry someone of the opposite sex, so I could, um, make successors.

After a while Marceline took notice of the fact that I always changed the subject when she mentioned meeting my family. We held hands and snuggled all the time, but when we kissed I always felt so conflicted inside. I wanted it, but it felt so wrong and scary that I always went kind of rigid before I allowed myself to get too into it. I don't know how many fights we got into because of my reservations.

I thought that maybe if I could just make her a little more "presentable," then just maybe our relationship could work. She hated when I corrected her behavior, and started pointing out all my flaws as well. When I rebuked her for a morbid or perverted joke she called me a snob who cared more for my social status than I did for being "real." When I told her she needed to shower more she sarcastically apologized for not spending an "hour each morning primping in the mirror." When I told her she should take more interest in my scientific studies, she just said the only reason I was into that junk was because I was scared of real excitement.

Pretty soon all we could see was the negative in each other. We had a really messy "break up," if that's what you'd want to call it. I tried to give all her stuff back, but she wouldn't take it. She just told me to get out and rule my kingdom since that's "all I cared about." I got rid of all the little trinkets she gave me except for her band t-shirt. I just couldn't part with that. It was soft and well worn and meant a lot to her before she gave it to me. It always held a little of her scent. On nights when I couldn't sleep, I just put it on and it felt like I was in her arms again.

If I'd had the perspective that I do now, I might have tried harder to make things work with her, but that's all in the past. When I turned 17, I never really had time to dwell on her, because Mama made me ruler of the whole kingdom.

"Now, technically you are still a princess, since you are unmarried and I'm still around as queen, but I am passing all authority on to you." She said to me one day.

"Why, Mama, where are you going?"

"Your Uncle Gumball needs help ruling his Kingdom. It's not nearly as remote and peaceful as ours is. Until further notice, I need to go help him. Sweetie, it might be years before we see each other again, but you have matured so well and I know you are ready for this. I'm so sorry."

"It's ok, Mama." I felt numb, "I don't think I'm ready for this, though."

She smiled wisely at me and her pretty pink cheeks brightened, "Thinking you're not is the biggest sign that you actually are."

A week later she left for Gumball's kingdom. We write letters all the time, but I haven't seen her since then. One perk to being ruler was that I got my very own Rainicorn! She became my best friend. It was a little overwhelming ruling an entire kingdom, but luckily a hero came along to ease the burden. Billy had retired a long time ago, but this hero was pretty different from Billy.

It was Finn.

For years Finn and his best friend, Jake, were always there to help our kingdom in need. Zombies, fish people, and even little errands like delivering tarts were taken up by the heroes with complete loyalty. Finn was such a fun kid to hang out with! Of course, at times it was a little awkward that he was so bad at hiding the fact that he had a crush on me. I thought since he was so young that he wouldn't keep his attention on me for long. He would realize eventually that I was too old for him and find someone his own age.

The only problem was that there wasn't anyone his own age that we knew of in Ooo, or at least, no one who resembled anything close to a human. So, he just pined over me and I let him. Sometimes I think I humored him too much. I liked the attention and I didn't want to be mean to him by just rejecting him. He was such a sweet boy, and that's all I saw him as, even as he got more emotionally mature, and grew a little taller, with a little deeper of a voice.

Everything changed after the accident with the Lich, though. It's a long story, and I'm sure you know it as everyone in Ooo seems to know it, but in short it ended up with me being possessed by the Lich, almost dying, and then being reconstructed. There wasn't enough gum to work with though, so when the surgery was finished I was only 13 years old!

That was exactly Finn's age at the time. And that was when I realized I liked him, and that I probably had for a long time. It was so much fun just to be care free with him and be a kid again! We went exploring in the woods, he helped me with little experiments, and he showed me how fun pranking that butt, Lemongrab could be!

Whenever he worked on anything together he sat close enough to me that I could feel the warmth from his body. We were always finding some excuse to hug or hold hands, but would never admit actually being a couple because, being 13, we both found that "gross." He acted so happy around me and sometimes I caught him just staring at me with a dopey look on his face when he thought I wasn't looking. Something about seeing the world from his perspective and him actually being the same size as me made me see him as more than just a silly boy.

One day we'd spent the whole day riding on Rainicorn and he held me in his arms at the end of the day on the roof of the castle.

"Princess?" he said, giving me a squeeze.

"Yeah, Finn?"

"You know how you gave me that special 'like' sweater that protected me from the Lich?"

"Yeah. I hope you never noticed the stitches are a little uneven! I'm not perfect at knitting."

"No, Princess, it's perfect. It's just…it meant a lot to me. I still wear it a lot whenever it's cold. It must have taken you hours to make." He looked away from me and was blushing like a tomato. His mouth formed a little crooked grin and I could see three little blond hairs poking out of his hat. He placed his hand on top of mine.

"Well, it was the least I could do for you always saving me." I turned to look at him and placed my hand on his cheek. It grew hot under my touch. He did so much for me and yet he was so grateful for the one thing I did for him. "You know, Finn, I never thought about this before, but the whole time I've known you I didn't even know you had blond hair."

"Huh?" he looked up and stuffed the hair back in his hat with a quiet "Oh."

"Finn, will you take your hat off for me?"

"Umm, sure, Princess? Why do you want to see me without my hat? I think my hat is awesome."

"No, it is. But…you don't have to be afraid to be human around me. "

He grinned a little and then yanked his hat off his head. A thick, soft shiny shag of blond hair fell around his face. It was so bright it looked like a halo in the sunset. My fingers traced along his neck and then ran through his hair and he shivered a little bit. Immediately my mind flashed to the dream with that little baby, where I ran my fingers through his hair as I fell asleep.

Of course I'd had my suspicions that Finn could have been the baby when he told me that he was the only human before he met Susan, but now I was sure of it. From my readings of humans before the Mushroom War, blond hair is a recessive trait, so how likely is it that a baby boy that would be Finn's age now with his exact same traits would be a different boy? Come to think of it, from what I remember of his mom, she looked somewhat like Susan! She was a lot less haggard looking, but not many women are as big as she is.

"Umm, are you ok, Princess?" I realized that I'd been staring into space while thinking of all this and my hand hung limply in the air.

"What? Oh. Yeah. I was just…thinking."

"Well, I was thinking too, Princess, and-"

"You are beautiful, Finn the Human."

He looked really surprised and started laughing nervously.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I interrupted you. What were you saying?"

"Well, I was wondering, since you used to be older and all, if you knew how you can tell…" he sighed and his words were barely audible, "when you're in love with someone."

"I'm not really qualified to answer that. My romantic relationships haven't exactly been functional and I've never told somebody I love them- in that way. 18 really isn't that old, Finn."

"Oh." He said. He looked kind of dejected, like he expected me to just confess my love right there so he could do it back.

"Finn, we're the same age now. I'm not going anywhere, and we're both kids. One thing I do know about falling in love with someone is that it makes everything harder. Let's just spend some more time growing up, ok?" That was the nice way for me to say 'Please don't tell me you love me.'

He brightened up, "Yeah, you're right, Princess. I mean, I see movies where people kiss and say they love each other and I think it's totally nasty! Then, when I'm with you I feel totally different about all that stuff! I like just having fun with you."

"Yeah, it's been a long time since I've just been able to let go. It's made me wonder if I even want to be in charge of a whole kingdom. I've never known anything else because my whole life is just planned out from birth."

"Whoa. That's heavy stuff, Princess."

We were quiet for a while and I stood up. "I think I'm going to read. Will I see you tomorrow, Finn?"

"You bet, Bubblegum!"

"Hey, would you mind telling me about your childhood tomorrow?"

"Um, ok. What about it?" he seemed a little uncomfortable.

"Just…everything. I want to know what it was like being raised by Jake's family."

"Sure, if you're into that. I'll pack us lunch and we roast marshmellows on the fire lake. I mean, not the living marshmellows here- the normal ones."

I left wondering how much he would tell me. He got really awkward talking about his past. Maybe it had something to do with him getting all "soul searchy and weird" when he thought about being the last human. I just wanted to see how much he knew about his past before being with Jake. If he knew anything about being brought to the castle. I was curious if anything he said would jar my memories that were missing from when I was 6.

Before I'd even descended the stairs he had his hat back on.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Memory Finn**

_Author's note: to avoid redundancy, I do not go into events that happened on the episodes of the show, unless they are absolutely essential to the plot. It is assumed Lemongrab is still a butt and that Finn and PB are still pranking him, but my story focuses more on how their friendship grew when she was 13. _

I was doing some experiments with zanoids the next day when Finn hopped through the window. I jumped, wondering how he'd even got in, when I saw Jake standing in the window with his legs stretched all the way from the ground.

"Oh, hey, Finn and Jake. Are we going to the lake of fire?"

"Umm, well we should probably do that after you learn my childhood junk." Said Finn.

"Oh, why's that? I thought we were going to roast marshmellows." I was actually really looking forward to it. I loved going to the lake of fire on campouts when I was a kid (well, I _was_ a kid again), but never went there much after I took over leading the kingdom.

"I still have marshmellows!" said Finn, holding up his backpack, "I just don't think it's smart for us to be unconscious by the lake. Some evil monster could throw you in the fire or kidnap you!" His eyes got all big and weird and he hopped around flexing his fingers by his face like they were claws.

"Finn, why would we be unconscious?" Sometimes he made no sense.

"Well, I'm not too math with telling stories, so I decided if you really wanna know me, we can use this powder I have for you to go into my memories with me." He reached into his pack and showed a little sack with embroidered stars on it.

"Wow, where did you get that? It's really rare!"

"Oh, I have it left over from when Marceline and I went into each other's memories." He said it like it was no big deal, but I had this sudden, uncharacteristic surge of jealousy, although I wasn't sure which one I was jealous of.

"Why did you guys do that?" I acted nonchalant. One thing you learn as a Princess is how to keep emotional composure at all times.

"Eh, her fart face ex tricked us into erasing the memory of their break up. Then I had to show her my memory of her memory of their break up over him selling Hambo so that she'd dump him again. It was pretty fun beating him up!"

"Oh cabbage, really! I can't believe that jerk that sold Hambo would even try something like that!"

Finn looked confused and I realized that I had my little fists balled up and was using my angry face. I had lost my composure after all. Probably a result of being a hormonal 13-year-old again.

"I thought you and Marceline didn't really like each other. How do you even know about Hambo?" he asked.

I laughed nervously and shrugged, "Oh, you know, we went to a few concerts together before I realized how annoying she is! Anyways, let's use that powder!"

I don't think he bought it, but he wasn't about to push it. I don't even think he knows girls can crush on each other, so I'm pretty sure that thought didn't occur to him. He stepped extra close to me and sifted the powder into his hand. When I look over his shoulder I could see Jake still standing at the window, with the exact same wide-eyed grin as when Finn arrived. It kind of creeped me out.

"Umm, are you just going to wait there the whole time, Jake?"

"Nah, I'm going to go party with Lady." Then he narrowed his eyes and said in an extra deep, slow guttural voice as he shrank from sight, "You two have fuuunnnn."

"Ummm…." I started, but before I could finish my thought I was coughing up that powder as it entered my brain.

When I opened my eyes there was baby Finn in the forest! It was weird seeing the exact same baby from that dream I'd reflected on so many times. He hobbled around and then took off his diaper and squatted his naked little buns over a leaf…

"You don't need to see this one!" Finn shouted as he pulled me away from the scene by my wrist.

He led me along until we were in a sweet looking cottage in the woods. We were catching his breath and he was blushing like never before.

"Finn, don't be embarrassed. Look, we can wake up now if this is too personal for you."

Finn waved it off, "No, it's cool. Look, this is my old house where I grew up with Jake."

He smiled at it in a lost, almost melancholy kind of way for a few seconds and then led me through the door. We entered a homey little kitchen bathed in sunlight with dried herbs hanging on the walls. There were a pile bones and chewed up miscellaneous plastic jugs, bottles and socks by the Refrigerator.

As we walked into the hallway, I saw family pictures all over the place. I walked up to one that must have been a family reunion. A ton of English Bulldogs stood around each other smiling while at least 100 pups ran around in their feet. Jake was obviously the puppy showing off to everyone else by taking the form of a dog-couch for all the old lady dogs in the picture to sit on. One very well accessorized lady dog caught my eye- partially because of her opulent hat- but mostly because she was holding the only human in the whole picture. Finn had that little white bear hat on like always. He must have only been about 2. She looked like she was holding him just to try to get him to be still for the picture as he squirmed around brandishing a stick like a sword.

"You were such a cute little boy, Finn! Look at those rosy cheeks!" I said.

Finn never wants to hear about being cute. He wants to be tough. He changed the subject by saying "Do you hear that voice in the living room?"

We went in and saw Jake's dad telling Finn, Jake, and Jermaine the stories of the war between the Dogs and the Rainicorns. All three of them were totally enraptured by his animated story telling. Finn was even barking with them at moments of extreme excitement in the stories. That must have been where Finn got his sense of adventure.

We went into the back yard and saw Jake pretending to be an entire playscape for little 6-year-old Finn. His body was stretched intricately into a swing set, slide, and jungle gym all connected to each other.

"AWWW yeuhhh!" cried present day Finn next to me and climbed up the Jake-rope latter.

"Who the stuff are you?" said little Finn in a squeaky voice.

"I'm FUTUTRE FINN!" He said, making his eyes all big and his arms all wiggly.

"Hey future Finn, what's up?" said early-20's Jake, "Who's your girlfriend?"

"Dude, she's not my-"said big Finn.

"GROSS, you like girls!" little Finn kicked him and ran away.

"Ow, man, let's go!" said Finn.

We walked back into the house and heard a beautiful voice from one of the bedrooms. We cracked open the door and saw their mom in a flowing night gown singing them a lullaby with a little gold music box, "puppy hats and puppy hoodies. No stripes or polka dots, heather gray and feather soft, baby pink and baby blue, all the drawstrings you can chew…"

She fell asleep as soon as she finished the song, as did everyone else. She sprawled over Finn and Jake, stroking 7-year-old Finn's cheek while their dad was curled up at their feet. It was so sweet how they all just slept in a big dog pile. Big Finn leaned sleepily against the door frame watching them. I'm pretty sure he forgot I was there.

"Hey, Finn?" I asked.

He jumped a little and looked at me, "Yeah, Princess?"

"Where's Jermaine?" he wasn't in the dog pile.

"Oh, I never got to know Jermaine as well as Jake. He knocked a poodle up when I was 3 and went off to marry her. They had a litter of 6! I usually only saw him every once in a while on visits, so he was more like a cousin to me."

"Aww, well it looks like Jake is an awfully good brother to you."

"Yup! He's my buddy!" piped up Finn cheerfully. "Come on, let's see something else."

We saw when Joshua and Margaret (Jake's parents) first brought Finn home. They watched him toddle around. Margaret tried to figure out what kind of food he ate while Joshua researched about human needs on the internet. When Finn fell asleep in Margaret's arms she talked about how nice it was to have a little "puppy" in the house again. Joshua said he would raise him to be tough and strong so that nobody could take advantage of him or hurt him.

We saw a lot of memories at the house, all of them pretty happy. Finn was homeschooled on the history of Ooo, math, music, art, and how to read, although he never paid attention as well in his lessons as I did. I saw a time where he cried from a scraped knee, and a few sibling spats with Jake, but overall it just looked like a happy normal childhood (as normal as a human raised by dogs could be).

Suddenly, we were in the Candy Kingdom. Finn looked like he was about 10. His hyperactivity was exaggerated ten-fold since he had never been to a big Kingdom before. It was one of our annual festivals, and he was running around yelling and licking the candy walls and pavement. His parents had bought him a balloon animal hat of a "horsie" that sat on top of his bear hat. When they announced that the Princess (me) was going to do a welcoming speech to the citizens everyone froze and looked up to my tower window. When I came out to welcome our visitors, Finn looked at me completely "bright eyed and bushy tailed." On the way home he asked all sorts of questions about the Candy Kingdom and when they could go back. Margaret said that if he liked it so much they could go back in three months for the annual back rubbing ceremony.

"Oh, Finn, let's go there! I'd love to see your first time at the back rubbing ceremony! It's my favorite festivity!"

"Umm, we never went, Princess." He said quietly.

"Oh, why not?" I asked, "Did you get sick or something?"

"No, we were going to. It's just that…" he winced a little and looked towards the ground, "they all died the week before we went. Jermaine and his pups were even going to go and they just…" he trailed off and his eyes glistened with moisture a little.

"Every body…they all died at once? Finn, I'm so sorry."

"I'm not going to take you to that memory, PB, I just can't." he said shaking his head.

I grabbed his hand tightly. "I would never expect you to re-live something like that for me."

"I guess I just kind of figured you knew." His voice cracked a little. He was still looking at the ground. "I mean, Jake's my only family left. It was…a massacre."

"No, I'm sorry. I guess I just figured you liked living away in the tree house for the sense of freedom." There was a painful silence. "Finn, I feel horrible for making you show me all this personal stuff. You didn't have to do this for me."

"Don't feel bad, I wanted you to come here with me. I've been wanting to go into my memories ever since I got that powder, but I was…too freaked out to come on my own."

"Oh." I couldn't help but smile a little that he'd want me to come with him to do this, even over Jake.

"I was wondering if you could help me with something." I started to speak but he said, "Don't say yes until you know what it is! Marceline told me that the farther way the memory is from you conscious mind, the less likely it is we'll run across it. I was wondering if you'd help me look for my memory core and find my memories from when I was _really_ tiny. Like, from before mom and dad adopted me. I want to know who my human parents were."

My ears prickled at this opportunity. Back in his oldest memories may be my memories from when I was 6. Maybe then I could finally make sense of everything. I said I would help him, of course, and we ended up finding his memory core relatively easily, glowing from the ruins of an old dungeon he explored with Jake when he was 9. Entering the core was pretty weird. We climbed on tangled vines in the darkness sifting through orb-like fruits each containing a memory. The lower we descended, the older the memories were.

Finally, the vine got thinner and thinner, and I reached the very last orb, no bigger than a seed. Finn was a little behind me, but I heard a thump and looked up.

Finn had apparently run into an invisible wall. He thumped it over and over again as he knocked trying to get past it. It started right behind the one where he was squatting on that leaf. Suddenly I realized what was going on.

"Finn, it won't let you go past your first memory conscious memory! Since we don't have defined boundaries between self and environment as infants the events are too abstract for us to comprehend when we are older!"

"Chiz, PB, I don't even know what you're talking about! Why did it let you in?" he started trying to hack the wall apart with his sword.

"I don't know Finn, I'm not really sure how all this works. Maybe I can see your memories of when you were a baby and then we can go into my memory and I'll share them with you. Maybe it wouldn't be too abstract if you were seeing them from the conscious perspective of somebody else!"

"Ummm, right. I'll just wait here then." He still seemed confused, but he got the basics of what I meant I think.

I nodded and cupped the seeds into my hand, falling into it. I was transported to the same dungeon Finn had explored with Jake, but it looked different. Someone had tried to make it into a home. There was a musty looking sleeping bag next to a stash of dried meat, fruit, and breads. Pots and pans were by a small, murky looking puddle of water. I whirled around as I heard the coos of a mother and the wails of not one, but two new babies.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: When I Remembered Finn**

_Author's note: this chapter includes brief descriptions from episodes "Too Young," "What was Missing," and "Incendium," just in case you have not seen them._

At first I thought the new mother was definitely Susan Strong, but when I looked closer I saw she was not the woman that came with Finn to the castle when I was little. She was not quite as buff or tall as Susan. She had blue eyes, like Finn (I remember Susan having green eyes). The most characteristic difference is that her shaggy blond hair was in matted curls and I knew Susan had straight hair. She looked exhausted, but incredibly happy, and pretty overwhelmed. Her face was splotchy red and glistening in sweat. She sat in a pool of her own fluids and blood. In her arms she held twin newborns, a boy and a girl, both squirming with masses of blond hair.

I was thought it was all pretty grody, but to see life that was so _new_ just added a silver lining of beauty to it.

She rocked back and forth and over and over again she muttered "My Finn. My Fiona. My Finn. My Fiona."

She then took two little white hats she had knitted and pulled them onto their heads. Once was a white bear hat the other a white bunny hat. "Magic hats." She cooed, "Will grow with you."

It amazed me to see newborn Finn. He was small and wrinkly and red with a fine layer of peach fuzz covering his body. He couldn't have been more than 5 pounds. His twin was a little chunkier, her hair had a slight wave to it, and her eyes were green, just like Susan's.

He had a twin sister named Fiona. That took a little to sink in. What if she was still alive? What happened to his mother if Susan was the one who brought Finn to the castle? There was no other adult in sight. Had this woman delivered twins completely alone?

Suddenly I heard steps entering the cave. "Sister," came a deep female voice, "Gotcha fresh kill pig. Got babies blankets. Now you give babies milk."

Susan helped position the babies to latch on to their exhausted mother's breasts. The mother smiled contently when she felt both of them suckling and dozed off a little while Susan cleaned up the filth of afterbirth around her.

So Susan was Finn's aunt. That explained why his mother looked so similar to her, but why didn't she remember Finn or the surface world when he found her with the fish people? She must have had some messed up stuff happen to her after she left our castle…

The next memory must have been a whole 7 months later based on the size of the babies. Each had warm jumpsuits made with animal hyde and were still wearing those same hats. The four of them were on the beach and Susan called her sister from aboard a large boat made out of bottles, foil, plastic, aluminum cans, driftwood, and all sorts of miscellaneous junk. She must have been working on it since before the birth of the twins to have made it all by herself. There was even a pretty good sized under cabin where the babies could be safe from the elements. Maybe they were sailing to a new land where the Goat-Pigs wouldn't be after them.

After they had all been pushed off Susan raised the sails and took control of the massive oars while her sister made them lunch out of some kind of weird eight-eyed fish and what could only be oak leaves and twigs. Were these really the beings that once ruled the whole earth with their technology? When not in large numbers, even their best innovations seemed primitive.

The memory lurched forward a week. Fiona and Finn were crawling with ease around the deck, giggling madly, pulling at the ears of each other's hats, scuttiling around chasing each other, and sharing make shift toys made of black rubber rings and cloth. We were in the middle of the ocean, with nothing but water on all sides of us.

The memory lurched forward yet again, but now we were in the middle of a heavy storm. I panicked, wanting to wake up for fear that it would dissolve me, but then I remembered that I was only in a memory. My body would be completely unaffected and I was also completely helpless to aid the four people around me. Finn and Fiona shivered and screamed as their mom held both of them in one arm while trying to lower the sail with the other. Susan battled with the oars. I could only see glimpses of them when lightning flashed their images to me and I could barely hear their voices over the roar of the rain.

I was completely disoriented when a wave crashed over the top of the ship. I did not think anything could be louder than that water, but right as I thought that I heard a sickening *CRACK* and felt the horrible vibrations of the entire boat splitting in two.

After the wave had passed and our half of the boat bobbled into relative stability I heard pained wails from Susan over little Finn's voice, "SISTER! SISTER! FIONA! SISTER!"

I heard the faintest of responses, but they faded away in less than a minute. Susan kept yelling like that, for what must have been an hour until the storm had completely calmed. My eyes brimmed with tears as I watched her yell until her voice cracked and grew weak and she crumpled in defeat, holding Finn close in the calm water.

We heard the sound of gulls and both looked up at the same time to see a thick chunk of land in the distance. Susan and Finn were on the current carrying them back to Ooo. Who knows which one Fiona and her mother were on if they even managed to stay on their half of the boat for the rest of the storm.

Another lurch. I am trying to keep up with Susan as she runs through the forest with Finn in a panicked way. Looking back through the trees I see the quick silhouettes of two menacing Goat-Pigs.

We are now in front of the sugar brittle doors of my Kingdom's castle. This scene is so familiar, yet so eerie seeing it from the other side of those doors. Susan bangs manically until I see a younger version of Mama answer it.

Then, as I see everything the Noodler erased from my mind from Finn's perspective it all came back full force in my memory. Later I figured out that the Noodler doesn't erase memories at all; it just compresses them so small that they never expand again unless there is some other way to witness them.

I had all those feelings come back for Finn. How I loved him like he was my brother. How I would have done anything to protect him. How I couldn't stand to be away from him. How proud I was to watch him grow.

When we finally got to the day he was taken, I recognized it, and remembered it before I saw it in Finn's memory. I decided I did not want to relive that, and woke up.

I was disoriented and stiff on my lab floor. Finn was curled up asleep by my leg looking perfectly content. I could really see his "raised-by-dogs" traits come out sometimes.

My head was overwhelmed with all the stuff I saw, both in Finn's mind and my own. Simultaneously as I looked at Finn I saw the "silly boy" I thought of him as when I was 18, the brave, handsome hero I saw him as my 13 year old self, and the tiny baby brother that I saw him as when I was 6. It was too much for me to process. I didn't think I could handle showing all that stuff to him.

I shook him awake and he startled. "Hey, PB, how did it go? Did you see any baby stuff?"

"Umm, no, it was all black." Hopefully I was a better liar than Mama. I was not even completely sure why I was lying.

"Wow. It sure took you a long time to wake me up. Did you get lost?"

"Err. Yes. I. Was. Loooost." I was as bad as Mama. Luckily, Finn is the most gullible person I know.

"Well, ok. Thanks for trying. I hope you weren't scared being lost in my deep mind."

"No it wasn't bad." I said quietly. Here I was lying through my teeth to him about his own past and he's worried if I was scared.

I stood up, but found I was light headed. Finn steadied my shoulders and lowered his head to peer into my eyes. "Princess, you want me to walk you to your room? I know we've been asleep all day, but it looks like you need a crazy good nap."

"Yeah, could you?" I whispered. I really did feel very weak. "I'm sorry we never made it to the lake of fire. It sounded like a lot of fun."

He slung his arm around his shoulder and started to walk me up the stairs. "No biggie. We can do it tomorrow after we pull the ULTIMATE prank on Lemongrab!"

"What do you have in mind, Finn?"

"Umm, not quite sure yet, but I'll think of something. We have to step up the game. Something that will make him wet his tight little citrusy pants!"

I slept late the next day and started working on one of my lab experiments to clear my head. Which did lead to us doing the ultimate prank. Instead of Lemongrab leaving, though, he sentenced the whole kingdom to "ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON!" That's what happens when you let two tweens try to take over a kingdom.

We were there for hours trying to think of what to do, but you can't do much from jail. I knew our only solution was for me to turn 18 again so that I would be biologically older than Lemongrab and have the rights to the kingdom again. I could tell Finn was disappointed when I told him that was our only option, and I told him that I wished I could stay a kid with him, but it didn't matter what I wanted. I had to do what was best for my kingdom, like I always did.

We finished the head dress of candy right there in the dungeon and as the transformation process begun I hugged Finn tight. I felt myself changing and I knew that I may never get the chance to kiss him again. So, I backed up slightly from the hug, smiled at him, and we just kissed each other. It was not awkward and boring like kissing my first boyfriend. It was not filled with lust and conflict like kissing Marceline. I just kept thinking of how sweet it was when he blushed and pinched himself before walking over to me- like just hugging me was a dream for him.

It was genuine and gentle. It was innocent and filled with caution and excitement. His lips were soft and sweet from all the candy he'd licked.

In almost the same moment it started so vividly, and then it it felt like a distant memory, since my body and mind had just aged 5 years. Suddenly it felt wrong to be hugging Finn that way. He barely came up to my rib cage and I would have to kneel if I wanted to kiss him again. How could I see someone so much younger than me that way, even if he was my age a few seconds ago? I pushed him away from me and felt disgusted with myself for still being attracted to him. He was just a little boy. A boy that I took care of as a baby. And I was an adult. With a kingdom to rule. What was wrong with me?

I knew it was selfish of me to let him kiss me in those last moments during my transformation. That was probably his very first kiss and I let him give it to me, someone who would forever be unattainable. How did I expect him to get over me by doing that to him? That's why from then on I decided to still be friends with Finn, but to be more aloof towards him than ever. I would not respond to, encourage, or praise and special treatment he gave me or any action with romantic intentions. Any guy would lose interest after a few months of that, right?

My new behavior seemed to make him try even harder. I still remember every single lyric to the song he sang me about losing a lock of my hair. Awkwardly enough, that was right after Marceline sang a song about wanting to make up with me. I'm just glad she didn't make it obvious that she meant romantically because that would be a weird way for Finn to find out. I didn't respond much to either one of them.

I tried hanging out with Finn every once in a while. The last time I came over to his tree house before everything fell apart he tried to lay his head on my lap just like Jake was doing while I petted him. It was totally weird. I mean, Jake is a dog. No matter how long Finn was raised by dogs, he isn't one, so when he does the same things Jake does with me it has a totally different meaning. Part of the reason I shoved him off was because I didn't mind having his head there, and that flipped me out.

I left right after that. I told him to stop being weird. I was losing my patience with him pining over me and was done being gentle with my words. I didn't think it was a big deal. I thought he would have renewed vigor tomorrow just like he always did.

Apparently he saw the situation differently. I knew this because later the same day Jake showed up at my door. I could tell from the look on his face that, for the first time in our friendship, he was _livid_ with me.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Distant Finn**

"Jake?" I said cautiously, "What's wrong? Will you come in please?"

He stood stark still and all I could hear was a faint rumbling.

"Are you _growling_ at me?"

He shook his head, cleared his throat, and said menacingly, "What are you going to do if I am? Call the guards on me, _your highness?_"

It took me a few seconds to answer. I kind of imagined both Finn and Jake only getting mad at hardcore evil stuff, so it hurt to see him this angry at me, "Jake, I'm not going to do anything like that. We're friends, so will you please just tell me what you are upset about?"

Jake made a frustrated "RAGRAAAAGH!" He then swelled up the size of an elephant, plopped down on his butt, crossed his arms, and while he looked away from me muttered, "It's even worse that you don't know! It just happened today."

"What the cabbage, you mean with Finn?"

He enlarged his hands to the size of my head and did a sarcastic slow clap, "Congratulations! The genius scientist princess finally figured out what she's doing to my best friend!"

"Jake, I can't believe you! Look, I know Finn likes me, but that does not make me obligated to like him back!"

"It doesn't give you the right to take advantage of him, either!"

"I don't take advantage of him, you poot-head! We're friends, and friends help each other."

"More like he helps you. Have you noticed that everyone else he helps if they're in mortal danger, but you'll let him come all the way to the candy kingdom to run errands or sort through your fan mail? What was the last thing you did to help him?" He had gotten up and was staring at me coldly.

"I…" now that I thought of it, our favors for each other did seem imbalanced, but who would be juvenile to keep score! Finally I thought of something, "I made him a sweater!"

"Oh, good job. You spend a few hours making a dude a _pink_ sweater to make up for all the times he's saved your life, and risked his! Good job, I'll have to just go home now and tell him to stop crying because you must care for him after all!"

"Whoa, whoa, Jake. He's _crying?_ That doesn't sound like Finn."

"You don't know him as well as you thought, then. I wish you could stop being royal for just 5 minutes and be in his head and see yourself the way he sees you. He would swim across the ocean for you, which is saying a lot because oceans are his one crippling fear! He thinks you're so perfect it's like you fart roses! Wait, or do you fart bubbles….that would be pretty cool….potentially embarrassing, though…" he trailed off, loosing focus.

I was exasperated, "Jake, will you please stop theorizing about my flatulence and just finish what you had to say?"

"What? Oh, yeah. I guess my main point is that the only time I ever hear you give Finn a compliment or kiss him on the forehead, it's because you want him to do something for you. If you can think of one time where that wasn't the case, I'll leave right now, but I don't think you can."

There was a long silence between us. How did I never see this? Had I really become one of those high-maintenance tease girls that annoyed me so much? "I guess you're right, Jake. I don't make him do that stuff for me, though. He's going to have to learn that if he wants to court a girl, then he may have to do stuff for her a long time."

"Yeah, but I want him to court a girl who actually likes him the way he likes you! Don't you think he deserves that much? He doesn't even have time to look, though, because you keep leading him on!"

He was right. We both knew it. I was angry, though. To admit that I had been wrong might change Finn and I's relationship, which scared me. "Whatever, Jake. You're overreacting. Just go home and cool down a little."

He sighed and hung his head, "I didn't want to have to do this, but I guess you won't believe the effect you have unless you do."

He pulled out Beemo's little holographic camera screen and popped up a live image of Finn. Curled in the fetal position on the floor. With _pictures_ of me around him. Hugging a wad of my hair. He wasn't making a single sound; he just let tears roll down his face as he stared off into space with his puffy little eyes. It was a little creepy, but mostly, it just made me feel like such a bad friend.

"I don't understand." I said in a whisper, "He always seemed so upbeat even when I didn't return his advances."

"Well, he was until you broke him." said Jake. "If you really care about Finn, then the best thing you can do for him is to stay away from him and find some other hero to run your errands. Think you can manage that?"

I nodded. Jake grew his legs until his body was in the clouds and lumbered away without another word.

There was only one way I knew of to give me the resolve to stop seeing Finn. One person who I had come as close to loving as I had him. One person who could be my heroine. I figured people in my kingdom might say it's wrong, but I was tired of feeling wrong every time I kissed someone! Jake said he wished I could stop being royal for just 5 minutes. There's no way he knows that I wish that, too sometimes. I swore to myself that I would accept her for who she was this time and not try to change her; "presentability" be darned!

When Marceline answered her door I imagined falling into her arms passionately kissing her, but all I could manage when I saw her beautiful face was a faint "hi."

"Uhhh, hi Bonnibelle. Can I help you?" she spoke slowly and formally, pursing her lips together and cocking her head in confusion.

"May I come in?" I asked. My tone was too bubbley to be natural under the circumstances, but I was so nervous.

"Surrrre…" she said, floating aside as I walked past her and placed my butt carefully on her rock hard couch. I don't know why she never got a new one when we were dating. Every time I brought it up she would just smile and say, "You know the _bed_ is much more comfortable."

It was silent. Immortals can go a long time without talking. So, I took a deep breath and said, "I wanted to catch up. I really regret us leaving our relationship on such bad terms."

"Wow. Ok." It wasn't often I surprised her so much that she was at a loss for words.

"Do you want to, ummm, watch a movie or something?"

"Errr, ok, but all I have is the copy of 'Heat Signature' Finn left over here."

"Oh, I haven't seen that movie in forever! Can we watch it?" I said excitedly. I wasn't really that excited to watch it. I just wanted anything that would get rid of the awkwardness in the air so thick that you could cut it like a slice of cheese.

Marceline shrugged, popped it in, and floated over to the couch. For the first 20 minutes of the movie, she floated above the couch. We kept stealing glances at each other. The only part of her body touching the couch was her shiny thick mass of black hair. I grabbed the end of it in my hand to feel it, hoping she wouldn't notice, but of course she did.

She looked down straight into my eyes and I felt my face get hot. Slowly, she floated down and sat on the couch with me. She looked at me and for the first time gave me a faint, relieved smile. Now we both knew that I did not mean to just catch up as friends. Wordlessly, she curved her arm against my shoulder and I leaned against her closing my eyes.

By the end of the movie I had my head in her lap as she played with my hair- braiding and unbraiding it, twirling it in her fingers, and smelling it briefly.

It wasn't working, though. Every time I closed my eyes I just wished it was Finn doing those things to my hair instead. I had to get rid of this feeling for Finn, though. I thought about how selfless, strong and devoted he was, and I just liked Marceline because of her body and her image of the "bad girl."

I decided to step up my game. I sat up and looked into her crimson eyes. Slowly, without breaking eye contact, I pressed my body against hers and then my lips. She didn't question or fight it, but just melted into me until we were kissing and breathing in each others' scents. I ran my fingers under her hair and then along the back of her willowy body. She clutched my hips tightly and pulled them closer to hers. I had never kissed someone so sensuously before and I was feeling warmth and tingles and sensations that I was completely unaccustomed to. My body was throbbing to be touched and caressed by her, to the point where I had forgotten in that moment that I originally came there to get over Finn. Maybe Marcie and I could really work again, I thought.

We almost rolled off the couch and onto the floor, but she swept me up before we hit the ground and she flew us up towards her bedroom. She tried to pull me away to put me gently on the bed, but I pulled her closer until I was straddling her and kissing the slightly raised bite mark on her neck. I ran my fingers down the front of her tank top until I felt her pelvic bones meet her jeans. I slid my trembling fingers under the shirt to her bare, cool, smooth skin and ran them up slowly over her ribs until I was just about to reach her breasts…

She shoved off from me and floated away from the bed. "What's wrong?" I asked.

She scrunched her face in consternation and sighed. "Look, Bonnibelle, it's not like I don't want this because I _really_ do." She paused and looked hungrily at me kneeling and looking up at her from her bed like she might really regret her next sentence, "You are doing this because you are upset about something and I really think you're going to regret it. I mean, we were together for months, never slept together, and now you can't wait to jump my bones?"

"Well, I just want to, um, make it work with you." I wasn't thinking straight. All I wanted was to press her against me again.

She glared at me like she didn't buy it. I'm not sure if I did, either. "Something happened with Finn, didn't it?"

"What? No, we're not even together! You know he's too young!"

"Ha!" she barked bitterly, "You talk about him being too young and you come to someone who is 1000 years older than you?"

"That's different! Your body is-"

"Is still 1000 years old even if it _looks_ 17. Do you really want to be with a girl who looks 20 when you're an old lady?"

"Well, if it works out, you could change me into a vampire!" I had perked up, thinking I'd thought of the perfect solution.

"You would do that for me?" she whispered.

"Yeah, why not?" I shrugged happily

Apparently I had said the wrong thing because she hissed, her eyes got all huge and glowy, and she started yelling, "THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS YOU DON'T GET ME, BONNIBELLE! YOU ACT LIKE BEING IMMORTAL ISN'T A BIG DEAL WHEN IT IS!"

Suddenly I was angry, too. "You always underestimate me! I can handle a lot more than you think I can!"

"Maybe you could, but I don't see why you'd want to! I care about you a lot and that's why I would never wish that on you!"

"Well help me understand!" I pleaded, "Tell me why it's so bad!"

She sighed. She didn't sound mad now, but more like she was explaining the birds and the bees to a small child. "You would go from everyone loving you when they first met you to everyone being scared of you."

"I'd win them over." I said stubbornly, "You taught me first impressions aren't everything."

She rolled her eyes, "Wait until I'm finished. It's against vampire dress code to wear pink, which would be hard for you. You would never be able to enjoy the sun again. You would be a joke to the other vampires. I mean, an awesome demon-vampire like hybrid like me has no problem, but they would never take a candy vampire seriously. You'd get pretty bored of trying to find new fun things to do after the first 800 years. Worst of all, everyone you loved around you would get old and die one by one.

"Do you really want to make all those sacrifices just for the mere chance of being with a girl you haven't even told 'I love you?'"

"Ummmm…" she was right. I had acted so rashly. It had been a long time since I thought about how lonely Marceline must be, and that loneliness did not have much to do with who she dated.

"I was right about Finn, wasn't I?"

"Yes and no." I conceded. "Nothing happened, but I kind of broke his heart and lost the chance of anything ever happening."

She snorted, "Yeah, right. The second apocalypse wouldn't deter that boy from dating you!"

"No, Marceline. It was bad. You don't even know. I feel like such a cold-hearted butt for not seeing what I was doing to him before. Then Jake came and told me to stay away from him, so I said I would."

She sat on the opposite side of the bed from me and said, "I've seen the way you smile at him. You're very composed, so nobody else sees what it means, but I do. I see it because you never smiled at me quite that way. You need to at least give him a chance."

I looked at her totally perplexed. I was expecting her to be jealous, or blow up at me when I revealed that I came over because of Finn- anything but my little relationship coach.

She smiled like she knew exactly what I was thinking, "Hey, I was the one who tried to set you and Finn up for a romantic movie date. I wouldn't have done that if I wasn't cool with you guys being together."

"Yeah, and you also told him it would be a romantic idea to put wild wolves in my room!"

"Ha! Yeah, that was pretty funny. He's so easy to mess with." She said it nostalgically and without the least bit of apology.

"But you sang that song at the door about wanting to make up and-"

"Hey, Princess? We're always going to have the same issues. We can't get along for longer than a day, we aren't into any of the same stuff, I think you're boring and you think I'm 'distasteful.' I'll always think you're hot, but I never expected us to make an eternal relationship. One thing I've learned from being immortal is that most things aren't meant to last forever. I just wanted to be friends again…or at least to have you not hate me."

"Oh, Marceline, I would never hate you." I was touched by her honesty. Every once in a while the wisdom from her age showed through.

"Ditto, Bonnibelle. Now what's the big deal holding you back with Finn?"

"Well, I'm just really confused with how I see him. When I was 13, part of me thought I was falling in love with him, but now I also see him as my brother."

"Eh, sounds a little complicated, but you can 'handle it.'" She said, mocking the tone I used earlier.

"You have no idea. You know that person who died that I went to the Noodler to forget when I was a kid." She nodded. "That was Finn."

"What the expletive?"

"Yeah…" her outburst pretty much summed it up.

"What are you talking about? What happened?"

"I recovered the memories from the Noodler. I took care of Finn when he was a baby. When he was kidnapped I thought he'd been killed instantly. I know a ton of other stuff about his past now, too. I even know stuff about his mother! I don't know why I haven't told him yet! What is wrong with me?" I covered my face in my hands.

"It is a scary thing to tell someone. You've just got to bite the cheese and do it. He might be a little upset that you kept it in for a while, but in the long run you'll be happy you helped him find out that stuff. I can see why that past would make you see him as your brother, though."

"Yeah, but it was so easy to be with him when I was 13. I think I could get past all the emotional baggage if I was just closet to his age."

"You're the smartest nerd I know!" exclaimed Marceline. "That weenie needs you there for him once you tell him that stuff. If that mortal age social convention bothers you that much, then I'm sure you can come up with some science-y loop hole for it."

Suddenly the solution hit me as she said that. I don't know why I never thought of it before. "Yeah…thanks. I'm gonna go home now."

"Ok, but if it ever doesn't work out and you wanna come resume that one night stand, then you know where to find me!" I snapped out of my thought at that and saw her grinning mischievously.

"Oh, Marceline. You know I'm not that kind of girl."

She chuckled. "Yeah I know. Too bad I didn't have the heart to take advantage of you when you were acting all crazy."

"Thank you for that, Marceline."

"Yeah, no problem. You owe me, ok?"

"Yeah, later."

Jake was completely right. I couldn't go back to leading Finn on like I had. I would do what he said and leave him alone for a while.

I had to because for the next few months, whenever I wasn't doing royal junk, I would be in the lab.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Unattainable Finn**

_Author's note: a short but sweet chapter. A transition in the character of PB._

It had been exactly 2 months since the day Jake came by. Lady Rainicorn gave me a message from Jake that he forgot to say: he did want me to call them in cases of emergency. He didn't want our kingdom almost being taken over by zombies again just because Finn and I had "funky drama llamas." I didn't want to have to call them, though. I wanted to not need them to protect us, but come ON; our best defense is freaking marshmellow soldiers. Really, isn't it kind of sad that we ever became dependent on a dog and a skinny boy in a bear hat to become our defenders, anyway?

Then again, somehow, they had become the defenders of the entire land of Ooo. Jake was magical. He didn't really have to try. Finn, though…he was just this normal boy of normal stature who had the talent of a god wielding his sword. His thirst for justice infused him with an amazing righteous strength that seemed to increase based on how evil the thing he was fighting was. I shook my head quickly and plopped my face in my hands.

I missed him insanely. The thing I missed the most, though, wasn't his righteous fighting skills, or all the "errands" he did for me, but what I felt like spending time with him. He made me laugh and feel light-hearted. It was like just for the time we were hanging out, I didn't have a care in the world. I have to admit, it felt nice to be admired. I always found it adorable how poorly he hid his crush. The way he looked at me was like I was the gravity that held him to the earth. Being away from him made me realize that I felt more similar to the way he did than I thought.

As I thought about all this I heard a *ding!* and my heart leapt. It was finally finished. Lady Rainicorn was really there for me the past 2 months while I was working on this formula. She brought me food. Reminded me to shower and brush my hair. Reminded me of my absolutely essential royal obligations. Tried, usually without success, to convince me to get some sunshine. I don't know what I would have done without her there.

Hopefully, this batch would work, without some nasty side effect. On the last try I grew tentacles. I took the flask out of the oven with my prongs and safety goggles on, admiring its ideal lavender shade. Then I blanched it quickly in ice water and saw it turn the lightest shade of rose pink with curly wisps of smoke rising from it.

That was it- the finished product. All I had to do now was drink it. Suddenly every doubt I'd ever had cross my mind hit me at once. What if Finn had moved on? What if I did all this for nothing? What if I lost all my hair and grow a third eyeball? I thought that maybe I should talk to him first before I drank it, but I decided I had to do it now so I couldn't freak out and change my mind.

I took a sample of my magenta blood and put it in this special machine I'd made to test a specimen's exact age, from its first breath after birth. After five minutes the result read "18 years, 340 days, 20 hours, 2 minutes, and 52.55 seconds."

I picked up the flask with my gloves, pinched my nose, and drained the entire thing. I immediately felt a little nauseous, but nothing weird popped up. I knew I had done my calculations right this time. As anxious as I was to see Finn again, I waited a day to go see him because I wanted to test the formula to see if it really worked and wait to make sure I wouldn't puke all over him. It wasn't as hard to wait as I thought. That stuff made me pretty tired, but I knew that should go away by morning.

Lady Rainicorn played cards with me and told me stories until I fell asleep for the night. In the morning I took another sample of blood, put it in the tester, and pulled it out a few minutes later:

"18 years, 340 days, 20 hours, 3 minutes, and 00 seconds." Right when I drank the flask yesterday after my first blood test.

I had successfully managed to freeze my age for the next 4 years.

Lady Rainicorn was the only one who knew what the formula I was working on was for, so she was the one who flew me over to Finn and Jakes' tree house. I knocked on the door and waited what must have been 2 minutes for Finn to answer the door. I could hear him talking to someone else as he answered and laughing.

As the door opened, he was looking behind him chucking someone a soda while he said "Hey, Jake, did you…" then he turned and saw me, "Oh, um, Princess. You're not Jake."

"No, I thought Jake was who you were talking to." I said slowly. This was fishy. I was expecting him to look surprised when I came, but not this _uncomfortable._

"Uh, well, no. He was going to come in a few minutes and buy us tickets to a gnome wrestling match."

"Well, Finn, I don't want you to miss that," sure I did. It sounded stupid, "but I have some very important things to talk to you about. Maybe I could go with you and we could discuss them."

"Oh." His eyes got all shifty, he looked behind him again, and then he said, "Is someone in danger?"

"Well, no, but it's about…"

"Then it'll have to wait, Princess. I'm mega sorry, but I don't want to screw this up-"

"Finn, is that Jake at the door?" It was not the voice of Marceline, Beemo, or anyone I would have expected. I quickly pushed the door open a little and looked behind Finn. Standing there was a painfully adorable princess who, taken from her hair of flames, could only be the flame princess.

I just stood there with my mouth open. Her voice was so sweet. She was so pretty. She and Finn looked so cute together. Worst of all, they were already the same age. She didn't have to slave over some formula to freeze her age and wait for Finn to catch up.

How could I have been stupid enough to think that Finn would not just wait around for me after what Jake showed me on Beemo's camera?

"Hi!" I said in a suddenly peppy voice and shook her scalding warm hand, "I'm Princess Bubblegum and I just came by to personally invite Finn to our Candy Kite Flying Festival this Saturday! He has been a great service to our kingdom and if you are his friend then we would love to have you there as well!"

"Oh, I'm more than his friend, 'Miss Bubbly.' I'm his _date._" From her tone I could tell she did not want me there.

"Well, then, all the more reason for him to bring you! Would you please come? May I presume you are the Princess of the Fire Kingdom?"

"I am." She smiled. I think the fact that I hid my shock that they were dating so quickly convinced her that I was genuinely there to not do anything crazy like confess my feelings, tell Finn I knew all about his past, and tell him that I drank an age freezing formula for him. I guess I had become a better liar than Mama when I really needed to be.

Finn laughed nervously and said, "Ok, Bubblegum, thank you for that very _important_ news." He gave me a weird look, "We'll definitely think about coming. That would be a nice second date, right Flame Princess?" She shrugged.

Poot! I was a horrible liar. Finn must have thought that was the important thing I had to tell him, but now that the Flame Princess was standing there smiling at me so sweetly/menacingly there was no way to communicate to him what I was really going to tell him. They both waved as Finn shut the door.

For a split second, right before door shut, Finn and I locked eyes when the princess was already out of view. My composure had slipped for a second, and immediately I saw a flash of concern on Finn's face. Maybe I imagined it, though, because he didn't open the door again.

Half way back home, I had Lady Rainicorn take me down to the ground so that I could throw up. It had nothing to do with the formula. I sat there for a long while, just working out what just happened in my head and figuring out what came next.

What had I done? Finn had moved on- he was with that hothead, and I had just interrupted their first date and set up their second! I didn't want to screw this up for him. He deserved someone so compatible for him. That's why I didn't just tell him all about the formula and his past in front of her. Finally, I'd managed to do one completely unselfish thing for Finn (Jake could go eat it!).

No matter what, I had to find some way to tell him about his past, even if he ended up marrying that girl. He deserved to know. How would I go about doing that, though, without her making sure she was present?

As for the formula, I guess it was my turn to be in Finn's place. If he ever decided to break up with flame princess, then I would be there for him, if he would still have me. He waited for years for me to come around and now I was going to wait for him. In a way the pain kind of made me feel good; like I was relating to how Finn felt for so long and therefore kind of evening out the imbalance in our friendship that Jake had pointed out.

Oh well, I didn't want to be any more adult anyway. As long as I stayed older than when I created Lemongrab, I could keep my kingdom, too.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Doormat Finn**

_Author's note: Thank you google translate for helping me type Korean! Also, I just wanted to note that Pendleton Ward mentioned that, as of the end of the 3__rd__ season at some point, Finn turned 14, which is his current age in this story. It would be neat for me to write a short story about his 14__th__ b-day…anyways, enjoy!_

Poor Cinnamon Bun was all tangled up in his kite for the 3rd time. I got the glaze all over my hands trying to help him out. I had to be fully involved in this festival for my citizens, but this year I was going to be really into it. I felt like maybe Flame Princess got the impression that I was a little jealous of her being with Finn, but if they did show up I would just show them I was having too much fun to care about that, whether they were there or not.

My kite was actually more like a small pink air plane. There was a platform for me to sit on, two propellers in the back, and wings that spanned 15 feet with gold streamers. It would be tied to a pole and I could fly up to make the welcome speech from the sky. Peppermint Butler thought it was a fantastic idea and stayed up with me half through the night finishing it.

I walked outside the castle and saw a crowd had already gathered and were muttering quietly. I saw my kite secured tightly and Peppermint Butler motioned for me to mount it.

After I climbed on he announced, "Now we will have our welcome from Princess Bubblegum of the Candy Kingdom! After she gives the cue, you may all release your kites! The owner of the last kite in the sky will receive a year's supply of candy!"

My kite was pushed off and I scanned the crowd as I ascended. There was a lot of people from outside the candy kingdom, but no sign of Finn.

Then I put on my perky diplomat voice, "Welcome visitors to the Candy Kingdom! We are honored that you entered this contest…" a minute later of the history of the kite festival, telling them not to cut down my kite as it was not in the festival, and the base rules to not eat the citizens or too much of the buildings I said, "Let the kite fight to the death BEGIN!"

A barrage of colors was swept up to the sky around me. I was pretty impressed at some of the light weight weaponry people had managed to mount on their kites. Arrows and fireballs flung through the air every so often, and kites were already falling to their defeat. I steered my kite clear of the battle scene. Pretty soon only 20 or so of the best equipped ones would be left to battle. 'Best equipped' did not necessarily mean the best weapons. Heavy kites were too easy to out maneuver. The best kind I'd used in the past festivals was just something small, agile, and with a sharp string to cut down the other kites swiftly.

When the kites had thinned out a little I saw it: A simple diamond shaped, but ornately decorated kite with streamers that looked like fire and a painting of the Flame Princess's face on it. I looked below it to see Finn flying it with quite a bit of skill while Flame Princess held onto his arm grinning. Her hair was not currently on fire, but hung down to her mid back. I didn't know she could control whether or not she was burning. That bothered me, because it meant her and Finn were capable of _touching. _

Finn couldn't paint worth anything, so he must have gotten Jake to help him with the kite. What was up with putting her face on there? Was that supposed to be chivalrous or some junk? One of the reasons I made the kite I could ride on is so I could be up in the sky and avoid her, but her presence had followed me up there.

I started to lower my kite when Lady Rainicorn flew up to me and said, "안녕하세요, 제이크 당신과 얘기하고 싶어."

"Jake? I really don't feel like hearing him gloat to me right now, ok?"

"그는 당신에게 화가 아니다. 당신이 그의 말을 들어야한다고 생각." She said gently.

I repeated the words in my head; _He is not angry with you. I think you should listen to him._ I wanted to blow up at her for taking the side of her boyfriend, but as I looked at her imploring face I knew that's not what she was doing at all.

I sighed and mounted her back, "Ok, Lady, I trust you." I kind of missed Jake, too.

She flew me down into the courtyard of the castle where Jake was messing around on his viola. "Hey, Bubblegum, what's slammin'?" he waved cheerfully. Like he didn't just give me a restraining order the last time I saw him.

"Umm, you know. Same old stuff…what do you want Jake?" I wasn't really sure what to say to him.

He suddenly looked uncomfortable, "Well, I wanted to say-"he gave a big huff and then muttered "*sorry.*"

"Well thank you, but I don't see why you should. All the stuff you said was true." I sat down next to him by the fountain and put my chin in my hands, "Also, it's obviously been way better for Finn that I followed your advice. Flame Princess seems really nice."

"Yeah, that's what I thought at first, too…"

"What do you mean?"

"Uh, nothing much. Just don't get on her bad side. Look, PB, I miss you. Finn misses you. I think ending our friendship was a little harsh of me to ask."

I sighed, "You guys will be fine. You both have girlfriends."

"Yeah, but we miss when you yell stuff like 'butthead' to characters you don't like on movie night. We miss your cool little inventions; I'd love to see some of those liquidly fireworks again. We miss your friendliness and all the help and encouragement you've given us in defending Ooo. So, I'm sorry."

"It would just be awkward of we started hanging out again."

"I don't think it would. Finn's moved on and you don't have feelings for him, so why would it be a problem?" His tail thumped a little, "Also, that stuff I said wasn't really true. That sweater you made Finn was really cool; it ended up saving his life. You were a really good friend to Finn, too. I know you weren't trying to hurt him."

Suddenly I realized I could get Jake to pass the message on about Finn's past. "Look, Jake, I forgive you as long as you forgive my past behavior. I will consider hanging out again sometime if you'll pass on a message to Finn for me."

"Sure, what's goin' down?"

"I know a lot of stuff. About his past. I need to share it with him."

"Like what? I knew Finn since he was a chubby baby. Do you know stuff from before then?"

"Yes, Jake, and he needs to know! He has a twin sister and a mother that might be out there somewhere and Susan Strong is his aunt!" I clasped my hand over my mouth.

Lady Rainicorn and Jake just stared at me with their eyes the size of dohnuts in shock. Jake's body turned into a spring and he bounced all over the courtyard while croaking "SAY WHAAAATTTT?" Then, he quickly composed himself.

"Go tell him yourself." Jake shrugged. He was being weird. I could tell now that he had some ulterior motive for me seeing Finn as quickly as possible.

I marched towards the area I had last seen Finn flying FP's kite. There had been no convincing Jake to deliver the message to Finn. I couldn't believe him! I told him that I didn't think FP liked me that much and definitely wouldn't appreciate me knowing all these intimate details about Finn, but he just blew it off and said it would be fine. He said that Finn deserved to know right away and that I should be the one to tell him since I was the one who kept it from him.

Of course I was going to tell him. I just don't know why Flame Princess had to be there.

I didn't tell Jake about the formula. That would just be too much.

Finn and FP didn't seem to be anywhere in the crowd when suddenly I heard the prissy, deep, nasal voice I knew so well, "Oh my glob, Bubblegum! Where have you lumpin' been?"

"LSP, I-"

"OH GLOB GIVE ME A HUG!" she shouted and soon I was enveloped in her lumps.

I heard a faint chewing next to my ear. "Are you eating a piece of my hair?" I shouted indignantly.

LSP backed away blowing a bubble with a wad of my hair and looking only slightly remourseful, "Well, like, sorry, ok?" blow. Pop. Smack. "The festival food here is, like, too expensive, ya know?"

"Well, then please, eat some of the street brittle, but do not eat the people without their permission and that includes me!" I pleaded.

"GUH, ok, whatever! Here, do you want it back?" she held out a sticky, saliva-moistened wad of gum.

"No…you keep it. My gift, just this one time, ok?"

"Cool. Anyways, like, what's happening?"

"I'd love to catch up, LSP, but I'm looking for Finn. Have you seen him?"

"Whoa, girl, why are you looking for him?" she leaned in to whisper, "Did you hear that he was, like, totally heartbroken over you and now instead of mourning you properly for the rest of his life he's dating some fire chick?"

"Yes, LSP, I _know_, ok? You really don't need to update me on the gossip about myself. I just have some stuff to tell him and then I'll be out of his hair." His thick, illustrious, soft hair…

"Well, ok. Just don't try to steal him from his girl. That's totally against Princess Code. They headed for the forest at the edge of the kingdom that way." She pointed straight ahead of us towards the West gate exit.

"Thanks, LSP, we're even for you chewing my hair now!" I hugged her and ran off.

"Tell me if they're making out, ok?" she shouted after me. Way to be discreet.

Minutes later I exited the castle walls and had just barely walked into the forest when I faint voices. I walked a little closer until I could hear them clearly-

"That was more fun than I thought it would be, Finn! Thanks for convincing me to go!" giggled FP.

I was going to walk right up to them, but they were having a moment. I couldn't walk in right now, right? Was I spying on them? Shmowzow, that would be creepy. What else could I do, though? I had to tell Finn about his family.

"Yeah, it was pretty math!" said Finn, "Sorry your kite got burned to a crisp."

"It was ok, as long as you do better next time, Prince Finn. I _want_ that year's supply of candy."

Wow, bratty much? She didn't even say thank you. And '_Prince?' _What was she playing at?

"Look, Princess, there's something I need to tell you." Finn's voice sounded meek and hesitant.

"Yes, my prince?" FP said sweetly. I could almost hear her leaning in close to him just from her voice and from the increased nervousness in Finn's response.

"Ummmm, well, I…" he stammered a little more and then finally sighed, "I'm not a prince."

"WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS?" I heard a huge flame ignite while Finn screamed.

"Owwww! Be careful, FP!" I peeked over the bush and Finn was yanking off his hat, which was currently on fire. He beat it on the ground to put it out, but it now had a huge, gaping hole in it and there was only one ear left.

His eyes brimmed with tears and his voice cracked a little, "Why did you do that, Flame Princess? You can't just go around burning things when you're mad- this isn't the fire kingdom!"

"Oh, so now _I'm_ the bad guy? You're the one who lied to me!" She had her glowing yellow hands on her hips and her twisted tower of flaming hair spit out embers at the end of each sentence.

"No, I didn't lie! Jake was the one who told you I was a prince! I know I should have told you sooner and I'm sorry!"

"That's right, Jake did lie to me, and that's why I don't let him around when it's my time with you!" she shouted.

Wow. No wonder Jake wouldn't deliver the message.

"I know," said Finn, with more patience then I would have had at that point, "but he wasn't trying to do anything bad. He just wanted to give you a chance to meet me. I know you'll like him if you give him another chance!"

I saw the flames around her get bigger and Finn jumped back a little. "There you go," she hissed, "Taking your _dog's_ side again."

Finn growled angrily. He hated when people called Jake _his_ dog, like they weren't equals.

FP was only growing bigger and hotter and some of the trees around her were started to slowly catch fire, "Well you know what, Finn? Sorry isn't good enough. You made a fool out of me! I can't date someone who's not a prince! My kingdom is going to need a fit ruler someday and I can't get word around that I've been dating some common boy! Where will my respect be then?"

At those words I felt my own little fire ignite in my chest. Finn was no common boy.

I stood. At the same moment FP turned into a gigantic woman of fire and smacked Finn against a tree. I gasped as I saw him lay in a smoking heap on the ground. How could he have saved me so many times, but look so vulnerable there on the ground, unconscious, with that soft head of hair I ran my fingers though when I tried to protect him as a baby? I would not fail to protect him this time.

"FINN!" I screamed as I leapt out of the bushes. Immediately I saw that FP was a 15-foot-tall flame person and growing.

"What are you doing, Bubbley," came a monstrous voice from the gigantic girl of fire, "spying on us? This is couple's business, so get out of here, wench!"

I stumbled between her and Finn, stood upright, and put on my sternest face (which I'm told is not that intimidating), "Who are you calling wench? I am the princess of the Candy Kingdom and this is not 'couple's business!' It sounds to me like just said you can only date a prince, so doesn't that mean you just broke up with Finn?"

"What were you doing, waiting like a scavenger for me to break up with him so you could pick up the pieces? Pathetic!" she hissed, and fire spit towards me. I dodged it by inches. Her words hurt more than the singed hem of my dress did, though.

"For your information, Flamey, I just had some stuff to tell Finn about his past, but you're such a flippin' psycho you thought I was trying to steal him every time I was in a mile radius!"

Some coughing came up from behind us and we both whirled around to see Finn on all fours, black smoke dust covering his very stunned looking face, "You know about my past, PB?"

"Finn, I'm your girlfriend who you just lied to and you talk to her when you first wake up?" more embers shot from FP's mouth at Finn as he shielded his face with his arms, "Do you know what I could do to you for treating me this way, _peasant?"_

I was silent a moment. I wanted to give Finn a chance to stand up for himself. But he just stood there, looking confused, and lost, and crushed. It was so unlike him.

Finally I ran over to Finn's backpack, sifted around in it, and before either of them knew what I was doing, I doused FP with his bottled water.

She screeched violently and thrashed, but she was so huge that the water only did what cutting somebody with a toothpick did- not much.

While she was temporarily disoriented, though, I drew Finn's sword from the hilt of his backpack and yelled, "Finn is no peasant! He was a hero. He was a knight. He used to be my best friend. He was valiant and stood for all that was good and pure. He was my champion. And, because I'm stupid, I didn't realize I was falling in love with him until it was too late." I glanced back at Finn to see him now standing, his mouth hanging open and staring at me like he never had before.

"You little harlot!" she screamed, "I'll teach you weak candy people just who you're messing with!"

Her fist descended towards me and I leapt out of its way as it incinerated three trees.

"Bubblegum, no!" I heard Finn shout. It seemed he had finally come to his senses. "Give me my sword and get to safety!"

I started to scale a tree so that I could jump off of it and get a better shot at FP's face with the sword, "No way, Finn! I think you're in denial about FP being evil and it's affecting your righteous fighting skills!"

"I AM TIRED OF PEOPLE CALLING ME EVIL!" FP's voice boomed. Then, just as I'd reached the top of the tree, she uprooted it and threw it- and me- high up into the air. I lost my grip and fell screaming, but found myself land on the soft back of a gigantic dog.

"Jake! How did you know we were here?" I squealed as I hugged him.

"Are you kidding? I could see this PMS-fest all the way from the middle of the candy kingdom! Finn's girlfriend is a giant fire lady!"

"Finn's all screwed up, Jake. He's taking the whole FP-being-evil thing pretty hard."

"We can take her, PB."

Yeah right. I'd never wielded a sword in my life. I was shocked at how heavy it was.

Suddenly I was whirling around on Jake's back and heat and light whooshed past us. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was dodging fireballs being thrown at us.

Soon Jake started huffing loudly. I knew he couldn't keep this dance up long. I had to think of her weak point. What was the part of her that always burned the first and strongest?

I knew what to do. "Jake!" I shouted, "Go towards the top of her head! I know how to weaken her!"

"You're the boss lady!"

I positioned myself on top of Jake as he rapidly shrank down towards the Flame Princess. Then I leapt off and arched the sword above my head towards her glowing orange tower of hair.

You know how it feels to pass your hand over the top of a candle really quickly? How it's a little warm, but it's just too fast to burn you? That's how cutting her hair was. I fell into the flames, but the second the sword cut her hair she was all put out and I was on the ground beside her.

I thought I had defeated her, but all I did was put out her fire. I should have known she'd be better at hand-to-hand combat than me. She walked over to me with her new little pixie cut I'd given her and punched me straight in the jaw.

My vision went black for a little bit and when I finally managed to sit up I was seeing double. I heard the wild, boyish screams of Finn and a faint "Ooof!" from Flame Princess as he tackled her to the ground.

He stradled her, holding her neck down with one hand, and had his sword poised over her with the other. He was breathing rapidly and had a furious look in his eyes, "Don't you ever touch her again!" he hissed.

"Finn," she said, using her sweet voice again as she struggled, "you wouldn't really hurt me, would you?"

"You're dad was right, Flame Princess. You are evil. I don't date evil, I slay it. That's my deal."

"So that's it?" she whispered, "You're going to kill me?"

He sighed and hung his head. "If you go back to your kingdom and forget this ever happened, and leave us alone, then I'll let you go."

"Ok, Finn, I promise, I will."

He stood up, glaring at her. Within seconds she had vanished in a puff of smoke.

Finn backed up against a tree and slid down slowly with his head in his hands. I looked around for Jake to take him home, but he had disappeared just as quickly as he showed up!

I walked up cautiously, and kneeled down towards Finn. I was blushing madly; he'd heard me saying all that mushy stuff about him.

I just sat there next to him for a few minutes, afraid to talk, move, touch him, or anything. Finally, I reached over and quickly grabbed his hand and placed it in both of mine. He looked up in surprise and his cheeks turned pink.

"I'm sorry, Peebles." He said.

"Sorry? For what?" that was the last thing I expected to hear from him.

"I was all messed up!" he exclaimed with frustration as he punched the air, "I can't believe I let FP do all that to you before I snapped out of it. All that junk you said about me was nice, but I'm no hero."

"No, Finn, all that stuff I said about you was absolutely true. Everything. You don't have to be the one rescuing all the time to be a hero. Wasn't it ok for me to be the one rescuing you for once?"

"Well, I didn't think of it that way. I don't like it, though." He placed his hand on my jaw and I flinched, "I don't like seeing you get hurt."

"Well, I don't really think fighting is my thing." I sighed. "I'm exhausted! You must think I'm a big pansy!"

"No, you were freakin' algebraic!" he's eyes lit up and he stared off to where the fight had been, "To see you flying through the air with that sword into a bunch of flames…it was so math."

I felt my face get even hotter, and all I muttered was a little "Thanks."

"Sooo…" started Finn, "_everything_ you said was true? Even about falling in love with me and about my past?"

"Well, yes." I said smiling at him.

He grinned and pinched himself just like he did before we kissed when we were 13.

"I- I'm really glad to hear that, PB. I imagined in my head so many times…" he shook his head and continued, "I'm just kind of messed up from FP. Would it be that bad if we waited to date? Just for a few weeks or something until I get my head straight?"

I smiled and ran my fingers through his hair "Sure. It's not often you meet the only girl in the kingdom your age and she ends up almost killing you and burning a whole chunk of the forest."

Finn laughed nervously, "Yeah, she was pretty psycho. Thanks for understanding. I just never thought I'd be the one asking you to take things slow!"

"Well, I thought maybe you'd want to wait to start dating me until after…" there would be no easy way to say this, "after you looked for your family."

He jumped up, "Shmowzow! They're alive?"

"Well, I don't know. They could be. I know one of them is. Do you still have that powder?"

"Yeah, but it's back at the tree house. Let's go do it there!" he started to run off.

"Wait, Finn, are you sure you don't need some rest?"

"Justice never rests!" he shouted. Glob, he was hyperactive.

He stopped in his tracks and I saw him bend down to pick something up. The remains of his hat.

I caught up to him and put my hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry about that."

"It's cool. It probably seemed dumb to you that I wore it all the time. It's just the only thing I've had ever since I can remember. It makes me feel human."

"I know that, Finn. It's from your mother."

He looked at the remains of his hat and then back up at me at this crooked little smile crossed his face. He reached up, strung his fingers behind my neck, and pulled me towards him.

I made a little noise of confusion, but fell silent when his warm lips met mine. I felt a jolt of electricity shoot through me and I hugged him tight.

Then he backed up, his face as red as Marceline's most favorite foods, "Sorry, I just had to do that, now that I knew I could get away with it!" I just nodded.

He took my hand and ran me back to the tree house. When did he get so smooth?

_Author's note: I'm really sorry if I disappointed all the FP fans out there! I think she could be a really awesome character, but her own dad called her an "evil force of destruction!" For the sake of this story, I just assumed that was the unexaggerated truth instead of believing she was just an adorable hormonal 13-year-old with trouble controlling her fire powers._


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Journey to Aaa**

It took a whole day for all that junk about his past to really sink in for Finn. He couldn't even look me in the eye after seeing me take care of him as a baby (especially the occasional diaper changes I did) and got really angry when that Goat-pig came into my room and clubbed me in the head.

He stood over the memory of me seeing his mother with Susan right after giving birth to him and Fiona. He just stared at his mother, trying to talk with her, even though he knew it was only a memory.

The hardest one was where they got separated in the ocean; I remembered Jake telling me the ocean was Finn's one crippling fear. As soon as we arrived in the memory on the boat he started screaming and wouldn't stop until I pulled us out of the memory! Sometimes he even yelled, "You're not coming out of my belly button this time!" but I never asked what that was about. I had to just explain to him what happened after that and he nodded as he listened, trembling slightly.

It was so late when we finished with the memories that I must have fallen asleep. I woke up in the morning warm and tucked in to Finn's bed. I jumped up, making sure Finn was not sleeping next to me (while it did not sound unappealing, that would definitely not be taking things slow). He was not anywhere to be found, but instead my partner in bed was a gigantic burrito almost as big as Finn was!

I leaned in slowly and sniffed the burrito, which made me jump back and place my hand over my mouth.

"Yo, Princess, I made you breakfast in bed!" said Jake, skipping into the room, "I hope you like everything burritos…because if you don't I'll eat your half."

"Jake," I started defensively, "I know I slept in Finn's bed, but we didn't-"

"What? Yeah, yeah, I know. He slept on the roof last night. Said he needed to clear his head." He sat next to me and took a big bite out of his culinary monstrosity and muttered, "He watched you sleep for a while first though."

"Umm, should I be flattered or creeped out?"

"Nah, I just learned watching stuff sleep is one of Finn's hobbies." Jake shrugged as he chewed. "He takes pictures of me when I sleep."

After I convinced Jake I was not hungry and freshened up a little in the bathroom, I climbed up to the roof. All that was there was Finn's sleeping bag. Where could he have gone?

Then I looked over the hill and saw 2 figures walking towards the tree house. After they got a little closer I could see them- Finn and his Aunt Susan. He must have left in the middle of the night to find her.

When he walked in his eyes rested on me and smiled, "Hey PB. Can I talk to you?"

"Sure." I said. Susan had started eating the everything burrito with Jake. She was just as huge as I remembered, and she never did learn table manners well.

"She doesn't remember anything." Finn frowned.

"Do you want to use the powder on her?"

Finn sighed and thought for a while, "There's not any left from yesterday. Even if we could get more, I wouldn't want to do that to her. It was really hard stuff to learn all my stuff at once, and that was just from me being a baby. Susan doesn't remember her whole life before living with those fish people! Just learning about the surface world was almost too crazy for her!"

"So, you think she might remember on her own eventually?"

"Maybe…" he said with a little lost looking smile on his face.

"You know, they might not be out there. You sister and your mom."

"I know, but they might be. They were swept towards Aaa in the storm, and I hear it's a pretty huge place."

I smiled and grabbed his hand, "I bet you pretty excited to go looking for them."

"Yeah, I am," He gave a tired laugh, "but part of it kind of blows. We going to have to go over the ocean, which is totally not math and…" his voice trailed off as he blushed.

"What, Finn?"

"You realize that we might be gone for _years_ looking for them, right?" he said. I looked away as tears brimmed in my eyes.

"Yes, I thought that was a possibility." We wouldn't get to be together after all.

"I'm going to miss you more than a fat kid on a diet misses twinkies."

"Umm, thanks. I'm going to miss you, too, Finn." I gently kissed him on the cheek, and he smiled as he gazed out the window, brushing where my lips had been with his fingers.

We just stood there for a while, thinking of what neither one of us wanted to say.

"I wonder what my sister is like." said Finn. "Do you think she's super girly and smart like you? Or maybe she's more hardcore like Marceline? Oh, man, I really hope she's not like LSP…"

"Finn, slow down! There are a lot of different kinds of girls out there. I think your sister is going to be just like Fiona the human, just as unique and special as her brother."

He chuckled, "So in other words you have no idea." I nodded and smiled, "I really wish you could come with us, Princess. I know you have your kingdom to care for, though. It just blows. What if I came back and you've changed your mind or decided that I'm too young again or something?"

"Trust me, the age thing is not going to be an issue anymore, I promise."

"What changed your mind?"

"Well, you know the time I came to the tree house and interrupted your date with FP?"

"Yeah, what was up with that? I never understood why telling us about the kite festival was so important."

"I actually came to tell you about your past..." Finn started to respond, but I interrupted "And the formula I drank the previous day."

I told him all about the months I spent working on the formula, about all the crazy side effects the first batches had, and how I tested that my body would not age for the next 4 years. I would have my 19th birthday only a few months before him.

"Whoa, Peebs, you did that for me?" I started to say something, but he collapsed into my arms and squeezed me. He had grown a few inches since he turned 14 and now his face came level with my breasts. Right as he realized this he jumped back and laughed awkwardly, "It'll be nice when I'm not so much shorter than you!"

"Yeah." I just kept thinking about him being gone for years in Aaa. There had to be a way for him to find them faster.

Finally I realized there was one thing that might make it easier. She had the same name, but how likely was it that she was the right girl? Being friends with my uncle gumball, I guess I always assumed that she was closer to his age than Finn's. Also, I thought Mama would have mentioned a peculiar detail like her being human, but I suppose she didn't want to rouse my memories I'd had erased by the Noodler. She didn't even know that I'd recovered those memories yet…I said goodbye to Finn quickly and asked if he could delay his departure just one week. Before he was able to ask me deets for why I wanted this, I left; I didn't want to get his hopes up.

I summoned Lady Rainicorn and got home as fast as I could. I clambered up to my room, ignoring all the castle workers asking where I had been. After I sat down, I got out my stationary and inkwell and wrote mom the shortest letter I'd ever penned:

"Dear Mama,

This is very important and I need to know right away.

Is Uncle Gumball's friend, Fiona that you told me about human?

I will explain everything later, I promise.

Love, Bonnibelle"

Three incredibly long days later I got her response, but I did not write her back because I was going to go see her myself.

I talked to Lady Rainicorn about ruling the kingdom in my stead. She said she would be honored and I jumped up and kissed her, "You are an amazing friend, you know that?"

She just cooed softly.

I mounted my gigantic pet falcon, The Morrow, with her sister, Yesteryear, and we flew over the vast, rolling hills of Ooo to Finn and Jake's tree house.

The vibrations of both the birds landing shook the entire house. Finn, Jake, Beemo, and a very frightened looking Susan came up. I noticed something different as I looked at Finn, besides the giant smile on his face.

"Finn?" I said, "You fixed your hat!"

"It fixed itself, Peebs. I guess magic hats from your mama do that!"

"Well you look happy about it!" I laughed as I dismounted The Morrow, "You'll be even happier to hear my news. I know where your twin sister, Fiona is and I can take you there on The Morrow!"

There was whooping and hollering from all of them. Finn jumped with his arms around the back of my neck as I spun him and he laughed wildly. When I set him down he whispered, "I don't know how you do it, Peebs, but you're the best."

Then he turned to everyone, "Let's go to Aaa!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: The Island**

_Author's note: here's a fluffly chapter for you with a little bit of action in the mix. The next chapter will be the last one for this story, but there will be a sequel started after I return from Spring Break (whoot whoot)!_

The next morning we were all set to leave. Both birds were loaded up. Marceline would be staying in the tree house while Finn and Jake were gone with a mysterious new roommate that she would say nothing about. There was really not much else to do, but I was so jittery I kept coming up with all this extra stuff.

"Oh, how much does Marceline need to water the tree house? Do you have extra underwear, Finn? Jake, are you going to have enough room for your viola? If not then I can rearrange…"

"PB, slow down, lady! You're making my brain throb!" said Jake, making his head the size of a Martian's and actually pulsating it for dramatic effect.

"Yeah, Peebs, why so nervous?" asked Finn.

"I-I've just never been away from the candy kingdom for so long!" I said in a slightly hysterical, high pitched voice. It wasn't until Finn put his hands on my shoulders to still them that I realized I was hyperventilating. He pulled me by the hand back downstairs while everyone chattered busily about the trip.

"Ok, Bubblegum, why are you so freaked out?"

"I'm sorry, Finn. It's just, when you're royal, your whole life is planned out from the moment you're born. You're not really offered any other options. I used to always imagine being unafraid, tough, and free to be rogues like you and Jake, but that's just not what I was brought up to be. I've always had my royal obligations, my nice dresses, and my kingdom sheltering me, and my entire science lab and library at my disposal. I don't know what it's like to just pack up a bag of things and just go, knowing I'm going to fight random junk along the way."

"Hmmmm…" then he blew a very long raspberry while thinking. "Strength isn't everyone's strength, though, PB. You're really good at science, so you'll probably be able to adapt really well. You can figure out how to make us cool shelters and what plants we're able to eat. You could even design defensive weapons for us! You don't have to fight stuff just like Jake and I do."

"Hmm, yeah, I guess you're right. I also haven't seen my mom in almost 2 years, so I'm pretty nervous about that, too."

"Why be nervous? She'll be so happy to see you!" Finn gave me a big, toothy smile. There was no way for him to know that for a very long time now I felt Mama was hiding something from me. It was something I didn't even admit to myself. I gave him a sheepish grin so that he would think I was reassured.

"Look, Finn. In case we get separated on our perilous quest, I want to give you something to remember me by. I might as well do this now, when no one else is around."

He blushed and puckered his lips, "No not that, silly!" I said, pinching his little lips. I grabbed my ankle and lifted the hem of my skirt gently. Around my ankle I had tied a baby blue, soft piece of worn fabric. I loosened it and tightened the knot above his little foot.

Finn reached down and stroked it, "Is that-"

"It's the piece of fabric from your clothes that was left on my window the night they took you. I meant to give it to you on your 14th birthday, but I still hadn't told you about your past yet, so it wouldn't have made any sense!"

"Shmowzow! Did you always keep this?"

"Yeah." I shrugged, "I always had it with me, somewhere hidden. It's a reminder to you of how much I cared for you then, and how I do even more now."

"Wow, thanks, PB. I don't even have anything for you."

"Please, Finn, I have a whole closet full of little gifts from you. I didn't expect one today." Finn squirmed in embarrassment.

"Soooo," he said, fidgeting with the blue cloth around his ankle, "is your life really laid out that strict just because you're royal?"

"Yeah." I shrugged, "Sometimes your parents even plan who's gonna marry you just based on stupid junk like kingdom alliances or trading of resources."

Finn immediately got an angry, distant look on his faced, "Are you engaged?"

"No, no! That's not what I meant. That's actually the one thing that's not planned out for me, because, well, my mom never got married, either. She didn't want to obligate me to do something that she didn't."

"Wait, so then your dad…" Finn trailed off awkwardly. He was smart enough to know not to verbally accuse my mother of being "loose."

"My dad, Finn," I continued, "is a wad of bubblegum. My mom is human mutated with candy, and she grew me in a petri dish from some of her DNA and a chewed piece of gum."

"Eww. I mean no offense!" Finn laughed gingerly, "So, is that how all babies are made?"

"Um, no, Finn." This is what I get for crushing on a 14-year-old, I told myself. I may have cared for him as a baby, but I was not about to take on the role of having the birds and the bees talk with him. I couldn't believe Jake hadn't done that already.

Jake's voice came from right behind me, startling both of us "Hey, lovebirds, time to go!" He hadn't even bothered to walk down to the room- he just stretched a part of his stomach in that he shaped to look like a giant pair of kissy lips.

Finn, Beemo, and I rode on The Morrow, while Susan and Jake followed behind on Yesteryear. I could tell Finn did not like flying over the ocean, but he did better than if he was close to it. Of course, it occurred to me that he might be using his fear that everyone knew about by now as an excuse to hold on to my waist like a vice grip the whole day while I steered. I only grinned as this thought occurred to me; I wasn't about to call the guy out. He got embarrassed so easily lately.

We rode until the sun started setting. We'd stopped trying to play road trip games hours ago and everybody was ready to rest and relax. Of course, there was only one person who wanted to keep going when we saw the perfect little paradise island to stop at.

"Come on, we're still rad! Let's ditch that island and go to Aaa!" shouted Finn in a tone so peppy that we were all annoyed by it.

"We're only half through the journey, Finn. We need to rest." I said patiently.

"Rest is for the elderly! Are any of you elderly?"

"Finn," said a small, adorable, mechanized voice of Beemo, the video game system, "if you do not stop at that island, I will electrically shock you until you fall into the ocean."

"Ok, Ok, Beemo! Rest is cool for everyone! Let's land!" Finn said, sounding slightly panicked. Everyone knows Beemo does not bluff.

We descended the birds on our beautiful little tropical island. Everyone seemed in a much better mood the moment we landed.

Finn taught Susan how to make the "red flower…" or fire to us surface natives. Beemo and I found some very nice meat men who gave us strips of their meat bellies to cook for dinner. Jake found a nice little cave for us to stay in and did a camouflage leaf covering over it.

In the bushes I changed into shorts and a t-shirt. My hair was also all gummed up from leaving it down while we flew all day, so I brushed it through, and put it in a long French braid. I jumped up and down and gave a little squeal. I felt all ready for a beach party!

I came out to see if Finn and Susan had finished the fire. "Look, Aunt Susan, we've already got the fire going. Just throw some kindling on there. Wouldn't it be sweet if you could make this on your own?"

"Nuh-uhhh!" grunted Susan, waving her large hands while backing away, "Susan dun wanna make red flower angry! Finn tame red flower!"

Finn sighed. I could tell he'd been at this for a while, "Ok, you can go rest or see if you can find us some fruit to eat, ok?"

She clapped and hopped from foot to foot, "Is fruit like candy?"

"Uhh, well it's not quite as math as candy. Jake says it's good for you, though."

"Susan will find CANDY!" she let out a guttural moan and drooled.

"Sure, there might be some candy plants here." shrugged Finn, "I don't really think those are tropical, though." He smiled after Susan, who had already sleuthed off on her search for sweets.

Finn still hadn't noticed I was standing there. He concentrated on prodding the fire and threw some more kindling into it while the meat cooked. His face was very serious. The blue cloth I gave him that morning was still securely around his ankle. I wondered if he wanted to teach Susan to make the fire instead of him because it reminded him too much of FP.

I sat and leaned against the fallen log that Finn was sitting on and gave a relaxed sigh as I let Beemo bury my bare legs in the cool sand. I rubbed the inside of my thighs a little as I tilted my head back with my eyes closed. Riding a bird all day sure did make me sore. The light from the sunset made everything all golden and warm and I noticed the sounds of Finn aggravating the fire had stopped. I opened my eyes to see him staring at me. As soon as we made eye contact he snapped his gaze away and concentrated on the fire harder than ever.

If I was like Marceline, I would amuse myself by kissing him and embarrassing him even more. I don't really think Finn was sure where our relationship stood. I mean, thanks to the age freezing we were only getting closer and closer to the same age, but now sometimes I just felt so much more emotionally mature than him. It was weird, and I couldn't ask anyone else about the situation because nobody else I knew had ever been in this situation. He was getting more bashful by the day, like he realized this, too. I think he thought if he wanted to kiss me on a regular basis it would scare me away.

"Hey, PB, I picked these for you." Finn held out a bouquet of pink hibiscus flowers, while looking down at the ground.

"Aww, thank you, Finn! They're pink, too!" I took them and started to weave them into my braid.

"You look totally rhombus, PB." he said it with that same look he gave me sometimes- like I was the gravity that held him to the earth.

I giggled and kissed him on the forehead. He got a dazed look on his face. Marceline was right; it was fun to embarrass him- just a little.

Jake came over with Beemo when he smelled the meat was done, but Susan still had not come back. We waited a few more minutes and finally started eating when we heard her stumbling through the forest at crazy speed.

"Water! Water! Susan found water!" she shouted repeatedly.

"There's water everywhere, Susan! We are on the _ocean!_" Jake growled, "Crazy muscled little whack job."

"Noooo!" she stressed, "Real water."

"Jake, I think she means water we can drink!" shouted Finn, and he ran to follow her.

About half a mile inland we found the most beautiful crystal clear blue lagoon just at the end of dusk.

"Aww yeahhh!" shouted Finn. He threw off all of his clothes except his shorts and jumped in.

I rubbed a slimy solution on myself that I used so that the water wouldn't dissolve my hair off (very essential for a candy person travelling over the ocean) and jumped off a tree branch yelling "Candy ball!"

Next Susan was stampeding in and yelling "Feel my up-downs, Finn!" while jumping to create tidal waves so big that Finn was using Jake shaped as a surf board to ride them.

Since I didn't have a magical dog surf board, I was coughing and sputtering from the waves hitting me in the face.

"Aww, Princess, are you ok?" asked Finn.

"Yes, Finn, I'm alright." My voice was strained, but I used the most dignified voice I could.

"That's cool. Not everybody can be the MASTER OF THE LAGOON like me!"

He was being pretty haughty for someone who was more scared of the ride over to the island than anyone else. I crossed my arms over my chest, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Peebs!" he puffed out his chest, marched around in the water, and chanted, "Master of the lagoon! Master of the lagoon! Nobody can swoon the master of the lagoon!"

"Yeah, that's right, Finn! You strut that bod!" shouted Jake as he floated lazily on the water. Susan was marching behind Finn and humming.

"Does the master of the lagoon want a kiss?" I said a little too sweetly.

"Um, well, sure, ok!" Finn tried to sound nonchalant, and was pretty embarrassed that I asked in front of Susan and Jake, but he wasn't about to turn in down.

He came over and closed his eyes. Jake was bewildered, and staring in shock. I just used it as the perfect chance to sweep his feet out from under him and dunk him in the water!

He came out of the water sputtering and yelled, "Oh, that's it, turbonerd! I challenge you to a chicken fight duel!" He shook his hair out while we all laughed hysterically. I could even hear little Beemo giggling up on the shore.

"Fine!" I said, trying to sound tough, "You're on. Boys versus girls?"

"Ahh no fair, you get Susan? How 'bout both the humans are on one team?" reasoned Finn.

"Hey, why am I the last pick?" said Jake, "Have you forgotten I'm freaking magical?"

"Fair enough." shrugged Finn.

"We go fight chickens now?" Susan said from up at the shore, holding a random chicken with fish fins by the neck.

"Umm, no." said Jake, "Finn, make your crazy aunt release the freak chicken and explain the rules."

Soon I sat on Susan's shoulders while Finn was on Jake's (he had to stretch to be Susan's height). "Okie-dokie!" started Beemo, our ref, "Let's have clean fight! One, two, three, go!"

Finn grabbed my arms with startling intensity and I started to bend backwards as he pushed me. I twisted all over trying to worm out of his grasp, but in no time I'd fallen into the cool water. Finn dived after me and scooped me out. While he held me I suddenly was very self conscious of how much my t-shirt clung to me when it was wet, and I wasn't the only one. Most of the time Finn only saw me in full princess garb.

"Wanna be my partner now, PB?" he asked quietly.

"Sure." I said, "Wait, you meant in chicken, right?"

"Pshh, yeah! What did you think I meant?" he said, blushing and scratching the back of his neck. Then he turned to Jake, "Alright, buddy, it's you and PB now!"

Jake let out a laborious sigh, "Ok, I guess I'll do that for you buddy. I know you want to have Bubblegum's legs around your neck."

"Hey shut up, it's not like that! I'm a chicken athlete!" he lowered his voice to a growl and glared, "I am a chicken proooo."

I clambered on Finn's shoulders and felt him place his hands on top of my bare legs. I hooked my feet around his back and braced myself the best I could, but fighting Jake was even more pointless than Finn. The more I pushed him, the more he stretched, and finally I got so tired that he just pushed my nose and I tumbled into the water again! I'm pretty sure Finn knew that would happen and that Jake was totally right about his motivation to be partnered with me.

"Hey, why have you mainlanders defiled the holy wizard water?" said a deep booming voice from behind us. We all turned to see three floating purple foxes wearing swim trunks and hoodies that looked like wizard's robes.

"Who the junk are you?" asked Finn.

"We are the tropical fox wizards and we need that water to produce our young!"

"Yessss," growled the second fox disdainfully, "and now you have defiled the holy lagoon by playing _chicken_ in it. Do you know that will make our babies come out with chicken feet? Do you really want that?"

"Well, uh, what does peeing in the water do?" asked Jake.

"Peeing in the water makes our young have to wear very thick glasses and smell like farts for eternity. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." said Jake quickly. Then I'm pretty sure he laughed maniacally under his breath.

"Wait, so babies are made with holy wizard water?" asked Finn, with his finger on his chin.

"Finn, just stop asking how babies are made and let me handle this." I sighed. Then I put on my perky diplomat voice, "Magical floating tropical wizard foxes, we are deeply sorry for defiling the water that you use to make your young. As humble guests to your beautiful island, we had no idea that this was a special body of water. Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?" Even though I wasn't wearing a dress, I ended with a curtsy. I'm classy like that.

"Well," said the lead fox thinking, "We could let you go, since you didn't know…" Jake and Finn high-fived prematurely, "but you have to filter all this water with sieves first."

They conjured 4 strainers in the air and tossed them to us.

"Crud." muttered Finn behind me.

"That's going to take all night and we're exhausted!" I whined in my most pathetic voice. "Isn't there another way?"

"NO." said all 3 foxes at once.

"Wait wait wait wait wait wait!" said Jake.

"WHAT." said the foxes.

"Since the water's already defiled anyway, how abouts yous guys have a chicken match for it? Best 2 out of 3? Then the lagoon can get cleaned."

"Hmmm," thought the lead fox, "It has been a long time since we've played chicken. What is the wager?"

"If you win, not only will we clean the whole pool, but I'll make you my famous breakfast tacos in the morning."

"Good thing they don't know why they're famous." whispered Finn, "I was in the bathroom a week from those things."

"Sounds enticing." said the lead fox. "Lately all we've eaten are fish chickens and hairy pineapples. What if you win?"

"Then you have to teleport all of us to the nearest shore in Aaa right after the match, including all our stuff and our gigantic flacons. And you can clean your own dumb baby makin' pool."

"Fine." said the lead fox, climbing on the shoulders of his subordinate.

Jake and Susan paired up were an easy win. Susan was an unshakable foundation, and Jake was so flexible that he just stretched wherever the fox pushed or pulled him. Eventually he got all twisted up like a pretzel and once his body got really tense, he made his hands huge, clapped them over the fox's head, and let his body untwist. The fox went twirling through the air and flew in to the water once Jake's body was back to its natural shape!

The fox popped out of the water and shook his fur dry. He floated to the shore line and I thought I heard him mutter "A pox on your puppies."

The second match was Finn and Susan versus the two smallest foxes. Finn looked like he was easily stronger than the fox, but then that butt blew some kind of enchanted breath in his face that made him all woozy and he just fell in the water! Susan had to scoop him out quickly so he wouldn't drown.

I guess they didn't like Jake's pretzel move, either. We were both playing dirty.

The last match everyone agreed that I had to be the one fighting. I was the only one who hadn't been in a match yet and they said it was only fair to use all of our players since they used all of theirs. I think they only said that because they knew I was the weakest person there.

I sat on Jake's shoulders, since Susan was already the base for 2 matches and Finn was still kind of out of it. It was established, though, that since Jake was only the base, he couldn't stretch me out of harm's way if we started losing.

The biggest lead fox from the first match was the base this time and the smallest one was fighting me (he was still considerably bigger than I was).

_Great,_ I thought, _we'll be up all night filtering water because I'm a boring weenie, just like Marceline always used to call me.  
><em>  
>The match began and the fox's claws squeezed on my shoulders and he twisted me dramatically, trying to get me to surrender and fall into the water. If I was weak before, being twisted into this position made me pathetic. I tightened my leg grip on Jake's shoulders and let out a small cry of pain as the fox twisted my back even more.<p>

Finn seemed to have stirred enough to realize what was going on and called out from Susan's arms, "Whooo, go Peebles! Remember, strength isn't everyone's strength!"

I smiled as I remembered Finn's words from earlier. He was right; science was my strength. If I could just look at this scientifically, I bet I just might be able to win this.

I paid close attention to how much force the fox was applying to twisting me and the exact angle he was in. Then, at a precise moment I had calculated, I stopped resisting and let my body go limp. The excess force the fox was using now to push against nothing caused him to lose balance and fall over me into his demise!

"Haha! Who's boring now!" I yelled.

Finn, Susan, Jake, Beemo, and even the hawks had gathered around me, erupting into cheers. We not only were saved from a whole night's work, but from a whole day's travel tomorrow! 

"Nobody called you boring. Why did you say that?" whispered Finn as he hoisted me up on his back.

"Oh, that was just something someone I used to date used to say to me." I said under my breath as I waved it off, "I always kind of wondered if it was true."

"You shouldn't date someone who makes you feel like crud. If it means anything, you're the most interesting person I know."

I beamed. Just when I was thinking I was light-years more mature than him, he says something like that.

The lead fox stood and glared at all of us, "Ok, now all three of us smell like farts and I think one of you knows why!"

"Whatevs," said Jake, "just teleport us!"

The foxes collectively rolled their eyes and casted magic beams onto us. For a few seconds my body felt warm and tingly and all I could see was light. When my vision adjusted again I could see we were on the beach, and on the horizon were the castle spires of my Uncle Gumball's kingdom!

"Slamma-cow! We're here!" Finn high fived Jake and they both started doing the spaghetti arms dance.

Finn started running towards the kingdom, but then fell flat on his face.

"Oh, no, Finn? Are you ok?" I ran up to his and put his head in my lap to inspect his vital signs.

"Naw, he's fine." Jake yawned, "You realize he's been up the past 2 nights straight and has hardly stopped to eat the whole time? When he gets really excited 'bout something he just parties too hard."

"Aww, poor little guy." I cooed.

Susan got sleeping bags for us all out of the luggage and collapsed inside of hers, instantly snoring. I wriggled Finn's sleeping bag onto him and zipped him up like he was in a little cacoon.

I carefully crawled into my pink sleeping bag and watched Finn sleep for a few minutes. He looked so peaceful. Jake was right; it wasn't such a bad hobby.

"Hey, princess?" said Jake sleepily.

"Yeah?"

"You know you're my bud, but Finn is my best bud. I've gotta look out for my best bud."

"Yeah, I know. What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm not stupid, PB. I see how you guys are around each other and I know something between you two has changed. I just want to know that whatever made you change your mind was legit. I don't even think you know how much Finn is into you."

I was about to say something, but then Finn grabbed a piece of my hair sticking out of the sleeping bag and put it under his face like a pillow. A sleepy little content groan escaped his lips as he exhaled.

I reached my arm out of the sleeping bag, thinking of taking my hair back, but then just placed my hand gently on Finn's shoulder. "Yeah, Jake, I know he is. I'm still not sure if it's love or not, but this is the most legit I've ever felt, too."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Finn and I were 13 again and were playing hide and seek in a spacious field with tall grass and the whimpers of tiny gnomes preparing for their harvest. I bobbed up out of the grass and shook out my short, curled hair. Straight ahead, I saw the little white bear ears always donned by my Finn.

I giggled out of sheer glee and ran over the grass to tag him. Of course, my big pink dress is never quiet, so he heard me coming and began running away from me laughing his head off. I caught up to him and tackled him to the ground.

"No fair, you cheated!" he said.

"How do you cheat at running?" I said, giggling.

"I don't know, but I'll get you back for it!" He had a mischievous smile and began to tickle me all over my ribs.

I rolled over, threw my head back, and we both laughed wildly.

"Finn!" I said between laughs, "Stop! I'll get you!"

I managed to shove his hands off me and tickled him back. He squirmed and jerked when I tickled him by his tiny love handles. When his voice got hoarse with laughter, I bopped him on the head, "You're it!"

Then I ran. I knew he was behind me. I had adrenaline coursing through me, making me feel alive and excited. No royal obligations. No people trying to take Finn. No worrying about the ethics of being with Finn.

For the first and only time ever, I was just experiencing the pure joy being a kid falling in love for the first time.

I had just begun to shimmy up a tree when I heard a voice say "Bonnibelle that is not very lady-like."

I jerked my head around in shock to see my mother before she gave me a rebellious little smile, "Mind if I join you in being un-lady-like?"

I jumped out of the tree and screamed "Mama! Where have you been?"

She hugged me tightly. "You know I've been in Aaa and now I'm…" her voice began to fade. I felt my fingers go through her; she was turning into wisps of smoke right before my eyes.

"Mama?" I shouted, grabbing the air in panic, "What's happening? Are you coming home? Why have you been gone so long?"

I fell to my knees, hung my head down, and let the tears fall.

At some point I must have lay down in the field and fallen asleep. I felt a warm gentle finger wiping the tears from my eyes. When I opened them I saw Finn inches from my face, poking out of his sleeping bag, with a concerned expression. He had the hint of a smile when I looked into his eyes.

Before he had the chance to say anything I burrowed myself into his chest and hugged him close to my body in the grass. I heard a little gasp of surprise from him and then he quickly squeezed me back whispering "It's ok, Peebles. Don't be scared."

While we were hugging I realized how much shorter than me I was. I finally realized that memory was only a dream. My spirit sank when I realized I was 18 again and I pushed him away suddenly.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked in a bewildered voice.

"Why were you sleeping so close to me?" I lashed out. I stood to get further away from him.

"I wasn't! Aww, PB, please don't think I'm pervy! I heard you crying in your sleep and I came over to wake you up! That's honestly all it was." He looked ashamed and confused.

"I don't need you to wake me up from nightmares, Finn! I was dreaming about something really personal and I'm an adult who can handle my own personal issues." I was pacing back and forth now. I was not sure why I was so angry, but I just was.

"Well, I don't get it!" cried Finn, tossing his hands up. I looked at him in shock; he'd never once lost his patience with me.

"_What_, Finn?" I growled.

"Well, you woke up and looked at me so sweet. Then you hugged me so tight and I never wanted to let you go. Then you bounce up and you're all yelling at me! What the glob did I do wrong?" His voice had grown increasingly higher as he talked. He sat up and put his head on his knees. I felt a huge pang of guilt as I realized he wasn't mad at me at all- he was blaming himself.

I kneeled by him and put my hand gently on his arm. He didn't move.

"Finn?"

He was silent, but looked up at me.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have blown up at you and you deserve an explanation."

"Ok…" he mumbled.

I sat down next to him and stared off, remembering the vivid sensations from the dream. Closing my eyes, I said "I dreamt about the time we were playing in the field."

"Oh." he smiled, hearing I still thought about that, but then looked confused. "Why would that make you all crazy?"

I sighed. "I also dreamed about something else at the end. Something I've been very nervous about- nothing to do with you, though!" I reassured him quickly. "Just something that's been on my mind."

"Oh." he said, too timid to ask for deets given my recent scene.

"Anyways, the dream felt so real. When I woke up I thought I was still 13 and-"

"That's why you hugged me like that." said Finn flatly.

"Well, yeah, I'm glad you understand." I smiled gently. "When I realized that I was 18 again, I was just confused, worried, and conflicted. That seems to be how I always am these days. I was angry that we couldn't go back to that field for realsies."

Finn stood, looking towards the ground. His face looked contorted and distraught.

"Finn?" I was not liking where this was going, "If it makes you feel better, that time in the field really is one of my favorite memories ever."

"But that's all it is for you. It's just a memory." he said slowly. "You're not able to have that same feeling now; like I do. The formula didn't work, Princess."

"What are you talking about? I haven't aged a second since I-"

"Does that really matter?" asked Finn, sounding exasperated, "You were mad because I'm still too young, and you were embarrassed about hugging me so tightly, like you _would_ have when you were 13."

I hung my head, "You're right."

"Why did you even take that formula in the first place?"

"Because, Finn, I want to have that with you again. We just might have to…" I was not sure if he would take this well, "wait a few years. I know that we're going to be the same age, but we're not right now, and liking you in this way is just flippin' me out!" I grabbed my hair and pulled at it, "I am so tired of feeling wrong every time I like someone!"

"Princess?" his voice was soft and calm, "I'll wait for you. I don't like seeing you conflicted like this. I don't want you feeling all weird with yourself because of me."

"I'm sorry, Finn."

"It's ok, PB. I mean, I'm the one I asked you to take it slow and then right after that I kissed you! I know I've been sending you mixed signals, but my body has been telling me to do weird stuff lately. I'm should be saying sorry." He fidgeted with his hands, looking uncomfortable.

"It's ok, Finn. I've been doing the same thing. I kissed you back, didn't I?"

He nodded with a dopey smile on his face.

"Look," I said, "instead of apologizing all day, we've just got to agree to put our feelings aside for a few years, ok? You concentrate on finding your family and fighting evil, I'll concentrate on ruling my kingdom, and we'll both concentrate on being friends."

"Ok, sounds good." sighed Finn, but he looked distracted. He then turned to me and quickly said, "Please, can we kiss just one more time?"

"Do you really think that's a good idea?"

He groaned, "Probably not, but it's so weird! I want to wait until I'm a little older to date you, but when I'm around you I feel all funky and I…" he trailed off and looked away from me. Wow- Jake really needed to have that talk with him.

"It's cool, Finn." We just sat there for a few minutes, watching the waves. I was actually pretty glad I was able to get that off my chest. I just hope it had not hurt Finn too much. There was only one thing I didn't say- I didn't want him to wait for me. If he actually found other humans, it didn't seem right for him to wait for the chance to be with me. Wouldn't the next step after finding humans be to integrate into their society and eventually marry to help save his species from the brink of extinction?

What if he was one of the only males? He'd probably have to have several wives in order to have any hope of saving his species (I read many cultures used to do that). I shuddered and cast a sidelong glance at my innocent little Finn. Had he actually thought that far ahead? Surely he could love a human girl more than a girl mutated in a petri dish with a wad of gum for a dad that had to take an age freezing potion to be appropriate for him?

"Finn, what if we're not right for each other?"

He glanced at me sadly, "I think we are, but I'm not going to try to convince you. I'm going to try and show you. In a few years when I get all this junk done, I'm going to be the man that you need me to be."

What if Finn wasn't even worried about making more humans? What if he just wanted to find some sort of sense of belonging- some rite of passage? He didn't seem to think me not being completely human made me a bad match for him. I just wondered if he would feel different if he actually met other humans (aside from his aunt).

I thought about how amazing it was that he'd actually found his aunt just by chance under a manhole. Then that his sister just so happened to be friends with my uncle and we were going to meet her that same day. What if finding all the humans was this easy?

Jake, Susan, and Beemo emerged from the woods soon after that with breakfast and we set off my uncle's castle. We got to the kingdom within an hour and we all gasped. Mama was right when she said that it was bigger than ours. Spires of pink and white candy stripes must have been twice as big as the ones back home, and cupcake towers dotted the horizon below them.

Walking through the town, candy people instantly recognized me as part of the royal family, and began to clear a path and greeted us pleasantly with small bows and curtsies. A few of them seemed to know my name and we heard it whispered every so often.

Once I even thought I heard a little lollipop boy whisper "Who's that fleshy kid that looks like Miss Fiona?"

How well known was this girl here?

Jake waved to all the people saying "yo, what's slippin', how ya doin'…" He clearly enjoyed the attention.

Susan stared hungrily at every citizen who addressed her and her hands shook with the effort to restrain devouring the citizens.

Finn was strangely quiet and his eyes looked all glazed over. He completely ignored all the chatter and town noise around him, with his eyes fixated on the castle. When we reached the Peanut Brittle doors the size of trees all he did was stare upwards, like he was a computer in the process of crashing.

"Are you ok, Finn?" I asked once I'd caught up to him.

"Gleeeeghhherrrmg." he groaned.

I shrugged and banged the big knocker on the door. A tiny peppermint person in a maid uniform answered and her eyes widened in shock.

"Princeeeee?" she said in a high-pitched voice.

I heard steps and then my uncle was in the door staring with his mouth open. He and I were the same age- Mama's sister was quite younger than her. I hadn't seen him since I was 15 when he came to visit our kingdom for the summer. He hadn't changed much; he was just a little taller, with shorter hair. We looked like we could be twins. I always wondered if he was straight. He stuttered a little bit and then shook his head to compose himself.

This was not the welcome I was expecting. "Umm, hi Uncle Gumball? It's me, Bonni."

"Bonnibelle, hello! It's so good to see you! Why didn't you write to say you were coming?" He leaned forward and awkwardly hugged me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think it would be a big deal. I wanted to surprise Mama."

"Ahh, I see." said Gumball with a concerned look and nodding to himself. "Well, come in, make yourself at home. You must be tired from your journey." He walked in and beckoned for us to follow him.

"Oh it wasn't too bad!" I started, "We had this amazing chicken tournament that-"

Gumball stopped in his tracks, whirled around and said, "I'm sorry, Princess, but I must tell you. Your mother is not well."

"What?" I said angrily. I could not believe she had not told me in her letters.

"Please don't be mad. She didn't do this to hurt you." he stopped and looked behind me, as if he just barely noticed Finn, Jake, Susan, and Beemo.

"It's ok." I said, waving my hand towards them, "Whatever you have to say to me they can hear."

His eyes had locked on Finn. "You? Are you human?"

"You're slam-bammin' right I am!" said Finn as he cocked one eyebrow and put his hands on his hips.

Gumball blinked several times and said, "Sorry, I know I must seem like a spaz, but you just look so much like-"

"Fiona?" I finished.

"How did you-"

"Well, seeing Mama was only one of my purposes of coming here. Finn, this is my uncle Gumball, but he's closer to my brother. We spent every summer together when we were kids before he had to take over this kingdom when he was 16." Finn stepped forward and high fived him before pulling him forward into a bro hug. Then I pointed, "This is Jake- Finn's brother, Susan- Finn's aunt, and Beemo, their tiny video game system, who pretty much just came with us because he's terrified of the vampire who's house-sitting for them."

"Wow, ok." said Gumball nodding, "Not to be blunt, but why did they come with you? Is Finn your betrothed for the kingdom who you took to meet Beatrice?" Beatrice was the name of my mother.

"_Why_ would you assume that, Gumball?" Finn looked hurt at the bite in my words and I flashed him an apologetic glance. I was mainly just getting ticked that he was avoiding telling me what was wrong with Mama.

"Oh, I am sorry to be presumptuous, I-"

"Just let me see Mama, Gumball."

He sighed, "Ok, but just you. She is not strong enough for any other visitors. I can have my maid take your human friend into the forest to look for Fiona if you like."

"Actually," said Finn as he stepped forward, "may I please come with Princess Bubblegum? I think it's important to meet her mother."

"Why is that, young Finn?" he asked skeptically. Finn leaned in and whispered something in Gumball's ear, which was met by a knowing smile and a clap on the shoulder. "Very well, Finn." Then he turned to Peppermint Maid, "PM, please see that the rest of our guests are fed and showed to their quarters."

We were instructed to vigorously wash our hands and then walked down the hallway following Gumball. I didn't bother asking Finn what he'd said to Gumball because I knew neither of them would tell me. Gumball stopped at the door at the end of the hallway. It was twisted with red licorice and had a purple-grapey hue that matched the tone of Mama's skin. My heart was beating so uncontrollably that I wondered how Finn couldn't hear it.

Gumball turned to us, "Please, don't be shocked. Don't say anything to her that may stress her. If she can't manage to explain everything to you then I will when you come out. I'm sorry we've kept this from you, Bonni."

Finn and I both nodded obediently. He nodded back curtly and slowly creaked open the door, "Aunt Beatrice? You have some visitors." I heard a faint, weak voice answer.

We walked in and saw this massive bed with no one in it. Finn and I both looked around in confusion until we saw Gumball motioning to the bed.

When I looked closer, I saw that on top of the bed, was a much tinier bed with a spread around it that looked much like a dollhouse living room; on the sheet, there was a tiny bedside table with tiny books and a tiny lamp. There was a tiny licorice rug with a small china plate of food crumbs on top of it. On top of the miniscule bed, used tissues the size of dandelion seeds were scattered messily.

"My Bonnibelle, I didn't want you to find out this way." came the smallest voice I'd ever heard. I leaned in to see a head the size of a large butterfly's poking out of the covers. She I heard the small chrip of her sneeze and she pulled another little tissue out of her dress.

"_Mama?"_

She struggled to sit up. Her lavender skin was pale and I could see little bags under her eyes.

"You are just as beautiful as I remember you, Bonnibelle. Will you bring me up to your face so that I can hug you?"

She spoke so sweetly that I could not help but honor her strange request. I cupped my hands awkwardly around her feather-light body until she kind of fell into them. I brought her up as smoothly as I could up to my face as she kneeled on my palm.

She struggled to stand and collapsed on to the bridge of my nose. I felt the strange sensation of her squeezing my nose and saying "I am so sorry I didn't tell you."

I wondered what Finn thought of all this. From the corner of my eye I could see him standing unsurely next to a chair by the bed. He must have known not to introduce himself yet. This was my time with her.

"Why, Mama?" was all I asked. I was in no mood for the royal formalities I'd known my whole life. I wanted answers.

She looked around the room and her eyes rested on Finn, going slowly up to his hat, "You've recovered the memories from the Noodler, haven't you?"

"Yes." I said curtly.

"Then this is Finn?"

"Yes, Mama."

Finn smiled nervously, "Hello, Ms. Bubblegum."

"Come here, boy, let me look at you!" she said with tears in her eyes.

Finn stepped forward and carefully cupped her into his hands. She touched his face slowly and said, "It is so good to see you alive."

She looked at me and saw my lack of confusion at her reaction to Finn, "You've recovered your memory from the Noodler?"

"Yes."

"Well, good. I don't know how you did it, but it will make my story much easier to explain. I suppose you should both sit down."

Finn set her back onto her bed and my mother went on to tell about the foreign policy trips she always went on to Aaa when I was a child. My suspicions were right- she was going over there about the goat-pigs, to protect Finn, and everyone in our kingdom as well. For years she was a stellar diplomat, getting most of the followers of the goat-pigs to stop hunting humans and sign peace treaties. The goat-pigs were all sterile, rogue results of military experimentations that the Lich cloned for his own purposes, so slowly they began to die off over the years. However, when the last, strongest, and most stubborn goat-pig assassinated Gumball's parents, it was taken as an act of war.

Mother waited for the soldiers of Aaa to find the convict because she did not want to leave me with the kingdom at such a young age. However, when there were no possible leads after a year, she decided she had to take personal action for the justice of her little sister and brother-in-law. She knew more about the culture of the goat-pigs than any other candy people did from working with them so intimately to create peace. She lied to me about needing to help Gumball rule the kingdom because she did not want me to worry about her and have it affect me ruling the kingdom. Gumball, while he was young, had excellent advisors and had relative peace with the citizens, who seemed to band together under the tragedy of the assassinations. Most of the letters she wrote to me in the first 6 months were from the wilderness- searching, homeless, and in camouflage clothing- yet she made up fake, boring details about life in the castle that I never thought to question. In reality she'd only been to the castle twice before her illness and that's when she met Fiona. I always knew my mom had combat training during the time of the Dog-Rainicorn war, but I had no idea she could still use it.

I felt every notion about what it meant to be royal change inside of me. Here was my mother, the "bad liar"- sacrificing everything for her kingdom, but being a lone rogue in the process; not the role of the queen and sheltered diplomatic nerd she'd raised me to be.

She said that when she finally found the last goat-pig, he was hiding in an abandoned zombie library learning dark sorcery. However, she did not know this until she threw a spear through his chest with sickening accuracy. As he lay dying, she felt her body grow weak and saw everything growing bigger around her.

Seeing the sorcery books around her in the pool of the creature's blood, she pieced together what had happened very quickly. He had put a curse on his own body that whoever should kill him would shrink until her body was too weak to stand and she fell over dead as well. That was the only reason no one had killed him yet; he usually warned enemies what would happen to them, but my mother was so stealthy that he never got the chance to do that.

Knowing a bit of sorcery herself, Mama said a quick chant to negate the effects of the curse. She stopped shrinking when she was no bigger than a butterfly, but she could not undo what had already been done.

She summoned the falcon who usually delivered my letters. He took pity on her and instead delivered her to Gumball's castle. She wanted to return to Ooo, but Gumball insisted on caring for her while his staff of private investigators looked all over the land for a way to reverse the curse. She agreed that was probably the best thing since she was sick at the time. She did not know that she would almost always be sick. The curse lowered her immune system incredibly. She always feared that she would not make the journey back, and was always scared to have me have to go through her seeing like that.

I was angry, but how could I say anything when I knew she got sicker from stress? I deserved to know and she lied to me under the ruse of protecting me. What if she had died and I never got to say goodbye to her because of that lie? It was in the past now, though. I was actually a lot like her- willing to do anything to protect my kingdom and the people I love, but to afraid to get intimate in personal relationships. I kept Finn's past from him telling myself it was because he wasn't ready, but really I was scared of how close it would bring us.

We talked a little about her journey. I said that I would bring her back on The Morrow and do research myself in my lab to restore her health. She deserved to be in her own home once more, and we were sure she could make the journey if I designed her a sanitized chamber to make the journey in. We decided to let her rest and were about to leave the room.

I knew what this meant, though. I would not be making the journey with Finn.

"Excuse me, Bubblegum? May I have a moment alone with your mother?" he was solemn and I knew he realized we'd be saying goodbye soon, too.

I thought it was a strange request, but I only gave a melancholy smile and backed out of the room.

About ten minutes later, Finn came out of Mama's room with an oddly chipper expression.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"You'll know some day." he said with a wink.

I rolled my eyes, "Well then! Nobody wants to tell poor, sheltered Bubblegum what's going on! Everyone's afraid I'll explode if they tell me anything!"

"No, it's not like that PB! I'm just not ready to tell you, ok?"

"I can understand that." I said, smiling. I was the girl who kept his past from him for months, so how could I be annoyed at him for this?

"Soooo, that was pretty whacky, with your mom being tiny, huh? She sounded like she was pretty kick-butt back in the day. Are you alright, Peebs?" he said, looking up at me.

"Yeah, it's just-" I let out a long sigh- "a lot to take in. I probably won't see you for a very long time."

"I know." he said flatly, lowering his eyes from mine.

"I know you've got to be in a rush to meet Fiona, but do you want to take a walk? Just one more time for us before everything gets even crazier?"

He nodded and took me by the hand. We didn't say much. It was like there was all this pressure for the moment to be special and that just made us both overly formal.

In the forest I stopped. We'd already been walking an hour. "I need to work on that chamber for Mama, Finn. Do you want to just, you know, say farewell here?" I did not like long goodbyes.

Finn looked away, with his hands balled into little fists, "Yeah, I guess that's math. Bye, Princess. I like-like you. A whole lot."

"Fare thee well, sweet Finn. I will write to you every week, my knight."

He swelled with pride at me calling him "my knight" and promising him letters, "I won't forget you, Princess! Every monster I slay will be in your name! Whether we find more humans or not, I will come back for you!"

"Finn, I-" before things could get any more mushy, we heard a loud noise coming from deeper in the forest and the scream of what sounded like a girl.

Finn drew his sword and spun around. "Someone's in trouble, Princess, I've gotta go!"

Finn ran off and I followed close behind him. As I got closer the screams sounded less like cries for help and more like the yells of an experienced fighter.

Finally, in the clearing, I saw a gigantic, shaggy, brown, magical wolf shooting neon-colored light beams out of its mouth at what looked to be a teenage girl. She was dodging so quickly that I couldn't really see anything else about her.

I heard Finn's wild war yell above me as he leapt on top of the wolf and strung his hands around its neck. The neon-colored beams started to shoot into the sky as the wolf struggled.

"WHY ARE YOU PICKING ON LADIES, WOLF?" Finn yelled.

"I'm not, we're just practicing!" the wolf choked. "Please get off me, Mr. Human, I didn't know this would be a 2 against 1 fight!" Surprisingly, even though it was 10 feet tall, the canine had the voice of a small girl.

"Oh," said Finn bashfully as he hopped off her, "Sorry, m'am."

"Hey, kid, what the stuff do you think you're doing? I had her right where I wanted her!" came the feisty voice of the girl.

Finally she was still and I could see her clearly. My mouth fell open. It was Fiona- it had to be. She was a cute, curvy girl with knee socks, a skort, a sword, and that same white rabbit hat she had as a baby. Her face was very similar to Susan's, although she looked a lot like Finn, too. Coming out of her hat, I saw one very thick, wavy lock of Finn's trade mark hair that I was so obsessed with recently.

Her and Finn stopped when they saw each other and just stared. Then they walked up to each other, cocked their heads, and started to do a weird little dance.

Finn did the spaghetti arms dance, and she copied. Fiona flipped her sword through the air and struck it through a nearby log, and Finn copied. Then, at the same time they both took their swords out of the log and began to slowly clang them against each other. Before I could figure out what was going on, they were in a full blown sword fight with each other!

Great. They haven't even spoken yet and they were already fighting. I watched helplessly as their swords clashed against each other and they both just barely dodged the other's blows. After 10 minutes they finally slowed down, realizing they were pretty evenly matched.

"You're not too bad." Smiled Fiona, not sounding the least bit winded. "We should fight junk together."

Finn just nodded.

"So, um" Fiona started, "Why do you look like me? Are you human?"

"Yeah. You're Fiona right?" smiled Finn.

"Whoa, oh my glob, another human? I thought I was the only one!" she pranced around with her hands on her cheeks in glee, but then stopped dead with one foot still in the air, looked back at Finn, and said slowly "Wait, how do you know my name?"

"Because I came here to find you." said Finn nervously, "I'm not just human. I'm your twin brother."

**EPILOGUE**

The next morning I had already finished Mama's chamber and we were ready to leave (I stayed up all night).

"I'm going with you." said Jake to me as our whole posse gathered to see us off.

"What, Jake? Why, bro? I know PB has to leave, but why you, too?" Finn's eyes were a little moist, but he wiped them subtly and quickly. His newly found sister next to him was tougher than he ever suspected and he did not want to look like a weenie in front of her.

"Finn, I know you may not understand, but I need to be there for Lady Rainicorn. I've missed her like crazy sauce the past few days and she's going to need help with royal duties now that PB is gonna be researching a cure for her mom." He searched Finn's face for a reaction before saying, "And I think I'm gonna propose to her, dude."

"WHAT?" he squealed. Susan's eyes got big, exclamation marks flashed across Beemo's screen, and even Fiona, who had barely met Jake, covered her mouth and gasped.

Jake groaned, "Dude, I'm sorry. I'm 28, though, and Lady is the best girl I've ever met. I love her. It's time for us to go on our own journeys, bro. You've got Fiona and Susan. I'm going to miss you, man."

"It was supposed to be you and me, adventuring like always." muttered Finn.

Jake sighed, "I knew you wouldn't understand."

"Nah, man, I do. More than you know. Go to Lady, dude. It's what you gotta do." Finn pulled him into a tight hug and Jake let a soft whine escape from him as Finn scratched behind his ears.

Finn looked at me next. We'd already said what we needed to the previous day, and there was no need to get mushy in front of all these people…or so I thought.

Right before I mounted The Morrow with my mother in her chamber and Jake, Finn stood on his tip toes and kissed me softly on my cheek and wrapped his arms around me. His lips brushed my ear as he whispered, "I will probably be your age when you see me again. Maybe then you'll be ready for me to tell you that I love you."

He stepped back and waved casually like he'd just told me about the weather. I blushed hotly and gave him a subtle nod. Then I flew off, on our separate journeys.

Finn's first letter arrived 4 days after we returned to the castle:

"Dear Peebles,

Fiona is awesome. She likes Susan. Susan pets Cake too hard. Cake is Fiona's friend cat.

How is your mom?

I miss you.

I got to fight a mushroom-turtle face yesterday.

Whack whacka boom bang and then I was like SMOOSH! He slayed.

Righteous.

You are pretty,

Finn"

Wow, Finn was right. He was not very good at telling stories. Oh well, hopefully he would get better. I smiled as I started my letter back and wondered how long his journey would take him.

_Author's note: That's the end of this part of the story, but there will be a sequel! I have a basic idea for it, but I am still hammering out deets, so if you have any advice, requests, questions, or feedback, I'd love to chat!_

_When I started writing this story I did not like Princes Bubblegum much, but writing from her perspective has made me love her. By the end of this story, I feel she has grown out of some of her flaws, like being obliviously manipulative and aloof, and has embraced her connections with others and explored who she is outside of the royal role she was raised to have. She has a lot to be confused about and is still figuring stuff out by the end, but what 18-year-old isn't? Her most redeeming qualities are that she cares deeply for others and she is a complete nerd, despite the prissiness of her appearance._

_I have gotten more drawn into Adventure Time than any other show, because I have always been fascinated with post-apocalyptic settings, and with whacky, trippy magic, and this show combines both of those things! I love Finn's spazzy, brave, random, but extremely innocent and chivalrous personality brought to life by amazing voice acting! As an additional perk, my attention span is much longer when I can see bright colors (that's why I never finished Skyrim)._

_In answer to a question I've gotten more than once, yes, I have seen all the AT episodes, and I allude to them a lot in my story. However, as a disclaimer all fanfics seem to shove in somewhere for liability, I do not own any of the AT episodes! Pendleton Ward, your mind is a masterpiece._

_Thank you again to all the people who offered me feedback and support on the story! This was my first fanfic and it's been quite fun! I am neutral to most AT pairings and would not mind writing a story about a different one._


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